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University  of  California. 


GIFT  OF 


^Accession    V  °9  5"^"  7  Clcms 


UNIVERSITY  OF 

CALIFORNIA 


ENGLISH 


IN  THE 


SECONDARY  SCHOOLS 


GAYLEY   and   BRADLEY 


"  BERKELEY: 

PUBLISHED    BY    THE    UNIVERSITY 
1894 


ERR  A  TA. 

The  authors  of  this  pamphlet  regret  that  their  distance 
from  the  printer  and  the  haste  attending  its  issue  have 
prevented  efficient  supervision  on  their  part,  and  have 
made  necessary  the  following  unusual  list  of  corrections  : 

Page    5,  line    9,  for  insistence  read  insistence. 

Page    9,  line  10,  for  Coverly  read  Coverley.  ■ 

Page  17,  line  27,  for  finalty  read  finality. 

Page  17,  line  34,  for  all  that  is  wise  read  all  that  it  is  wise. 

Page  20,  lines  13  and  14,  strike  out  the  marks  of  parenthe- 
sis and  substitute  commas. 

Page  21,  line  15,  for  tenor  read  terror. 

Page  21,  line  33,  strike  out  the  period  and  capital,   and 
insert  a  dash  with  small  t. 

Page  24,  line    1,  for  composition  read  compositions. 

Page  24,  line  20,  strike  out  and,  and  make  the  comma  a 
semicolon. 

Page  26,  line  31,  for  result  read  neglect. 

Page  27,  line  20,  for  naivete  read  na'iveti. 

Page  43,  line    5,  for  Length  read  The  length. 


SUGGESTIONS 


TO 


TEACHERS  OF  ENGLISH 


IN  THE 


SECONDARY  SCHOOLS. 


BY 


C.  M.  Gayley, 
Professor  of  the  English  language  and  Literature, 


AND 


C.  B.  Bradley, 
Associate  Professor  of  the  English  Language  and  Literature. 


BERKELEY: 

PUBLISHED    BY    THE    UNIVERSITY. 
1894. 


Printed  at  the  State  Printing  Office,  Sacramento. 
A.  J.  Johnston,  Superintendent. 


CONTENTS. 


Page. 

Introduction - - - 5 

I.    Sequence  of  Studies 8 

II.    Suggestions  to  Teachers 12 

Introductory:  Topics  and  Periods 12 

A.  Language. 

§  1.    The  Elements  of  Grammar 15 

§2.    The  Science  of  Grammar 16 

§3.    Word-Study . 20 

§4.    Composition 21 

§5.    Rhetoric 25 

B.  Literature. 

Introduction  to  Poetry _ 26 

§6.    Mythology  in  Literature _ 28 

§  7.    Poetry:  Other  than  the  Drama 30 

§  8.    Poetry:   The  Drama— Shakespeare  in  the 

Schools. 36 

§9.    Prose:  The  Essay . 41 

§10.    Prose :  Orations  and  Arguments 42 

§  11.    Prosev:  Narrative— The  Novel 43 

III.    Advanced  Study  for  Teachers. _ _ 45 

§  12.    The    Critical    Study   of   Shakespeare  (for 

Teachers'  Classes  and  Literary  Clubs) ...  45 

§  13.    References  on  Six  Shakespearian  Tragedies  58 


SUGGESTIONS  TO  TEACHERS  OF  ENGLISH 


IN  THE 


SECONDARY  SCHOOLS. 


INTRODUCTION. 

Attention  has  been  directed  of  late  to  the  lament- 
able condition  of  English  instruction  in  the  secondary- 
schools.  It  is  discovered  not  only  that  English  has 
been  neglected  for  other  subjects,  but  that  English  is, 
itself,  especially  difficult  to  teach.  That  English  has 
been  neglected  is  the  fault  of  parents  and  the  general 
public  more  than  of  teachers.  In  the  majority  of 
American  homes  little  or  no  reading  of  the  English 
classics  obtains;  and  insistance  upon  the  use  of  pure 
English  in  speaking  and  writing  is  left  generally  to  the 
schools.  That  English  is  difficult  to  teach  follows  from 
the  ease  with  which  both  teacher  and  pupil  may  shirk 
the  English  lesson.  The  instructor  has  a  smattering 
of  the  subject;  the  pupil  thinks  that  he  knows  all 
about  it.  Each  is  prone  to  contemn  what  appears  to 
be  easy. 

But  the  community  in  general  is  awakening  to  the 
fact  that  the  young  do  not  speak,  write,  and  read  their 
mother-tongue  correctly;  that  they  neither  know  nor 
appreciate  English  literature:  and  the  Universities  are 
convinced  that  better  training  in  secondary  English 
studies  is  demanded  by  the  interests  of  higher  educa- 

2 


6  English  in  Secondary  Schools. 

tion.  Especially  to  be  noted,  moreover,  is  the  emphasis 
laid  by  the  English  Conference  of  the  National  Council 
of  Education  (Report  of  Committee  of  Ten  to  the 
National  Council,  Bureau  of  Education,  Washington, 
1893)  on  the  pivotal  character  of  English  in  the  school 
curriculum:  "It  is  a  fundamental  idea  in  this  report 
that  the  study  of  every  other  subject  should  contribute 
to  the  pupil's  training  in  English;  and  that  the  pupil's 
capacity  to  write  English  should  be  made  available, 
and  be  developed,  in  every  other  requirement.  *  *  * 
The  Conference  claim  for  English  as  much  time  as  the 
Latin  Conference  claim  for  Latin  in  secondary  schools; 
and  it  is  clear  that  they  intend  that  the  study  shall  be 
in  all  respects  as  serious  and  informing  as  the  study  of 
Latin." 

For  years  the  University  of  California  has  made 
similar  claims  for  the  English  course  in  High  Schools. 
It  is  for  the  purpose  of  showing  how  such  requirements 
may  be  satisfied  that  the  following  suggestions  for 
teachers  have  been  prepared;  not,  however,  with  any 
thought  of  prescription,  nor  in  the  vain  belief  that  any 
scheme  can  obviate  the  need  of  independent  method 
and  attack.  These  suggestions  are  the  embodiment  of 
experience  and  observation  gleaned  from  many  sources, 
as  well  as  of  the  conviction  of  instructors  intimately 
concerned  in  both  secondary  and  higher  departments 
of  education.  As  such  they  are  offered,  in  the  hope 
that  they  may  be  of  assistance  in  the  introduction  and 
organization  of  English  studies  in  the  secondary  schools 
not  only  of  California,  but  of  other  States. 

It  is  not  presumed  that  the  particular  sequence  of 
topics  and  texts  (see  Sequence  of  Studies),  which  has 
been  adopted  as  the  basis  of  these  suggestions,  is  the 
best  that  can  be  devised.     It  has  been  chosen  partly 


Suggestions  to  Teachers.  7 

because  it  was  not  conceived  solely  with  a  view  to  the 
preparation  of  students  for  the  University,  but  with 
the  conviction  that  it  offered  an  indispensable  training 
for  those  who  never  see  the  University — who,  at  the 
end  of  their  High  School  course,  enter  upon  the  disci- 
pline of  life;  partly  because  it  has  stood  the  test  of 
actual  practice  during  a  number  of  years  in  the  High 
Schools  of  California,  as  a  requirement  for  entrance  to 
the  University  of  California.  It  is,  generally  speak- 
ing, more  stringent  and  more  comprehensive  than  the 
courses  pursued  in  other  parts  of  the  country;  and  it 
has,  moreover,  the  advantage  of  presenting  an  unbroken 
view  of  the  subject.  The  scheme  contemplates  five  reci- 
tations a  week  during  a  three  years'  course;  but  the 
best  schools  accord  to  it  a  four  years'  course,  beginning 
with  the  ninth  grammar  grade.  It  is  thought  that  for 
the  proper  assimilation  of  collateral  reading  and  for 
fitting  practice  in  English  composition,  a  four  years' 
course  is  indispensable;  it  is  certain  that  less  than  a 
three  years'  course  will  be  inadequate  to  secure  the 
permanent  efficiency  of  the  curriculum. 

In  the  consideration  of  method  of  instruction,  ques- 
tions of  aim,  scope,  topics,  and  time  are,  of  course,  i 
involved.  As  to  the  first,  it  is  the  opinion  of  the  writers 
that  the  aim  of  secondary  instruction  in  English  is  to 
enable  the  pupil  to  write  and  speak  with  clearness, 
vigor,  and  grace;  to  acquaint  him,  at  first  hand,  with  a 
few  of  the  best  literary  products  of  English  and  Ameri- 
can thought;  to  cultivate  a  sense  of  literary  style, 
and  to  inculcate  a  love  for  the  best  literature.  This  J 
aim,  in  general,  underlies  the  Sequence  of  Studies  that 
follows.  The  consideration  of  special  aims,  of  scope  of 
study,  and  of  periods  allotted  to  individual  topics,  will 
be  found  under  the  Suggestions  to  Teachers. 


8  English  in  Secondary  Schools. 

I.     SEQUENCE   OF   STUDIES.* 

1.  Grammar,  Word-Study,  Composition,  and  Rhetoric. 
In  such  manner,  and  at  such  periods  during  the 

course,  as   indicated   under   Suggestions   to    Teachers, 
§§  1-5. 

2.  Simple  Narrative  Poetry:  The  Lady  of  the  Lake, 
or  The  Lay  of  the  Last  Minstrel. 

In  connection  with  this  study  the  composition  exer- 
cise, beginning  with  the  single  direct  narrative  para- 
graph, should  gradually  grow  in  comprehensiveness 
and  length.  Further  points  to  be  noted  are  the  princi- 
ples of  good  paragraph-structure,  and  the  elementary 
apparatus  of  rhetoric:  figures  of  speech,  prosodical 
forms,  as  far  as  brought  out  in  the  poem,  and  the  most 
obvious  differences  between  the  prose  manner  and  the 
poetic. 

3.  Classic  Myths  in  English  Literature. 

The  main  purpose  of  this  study  is  to  familiarize  the 
pupil  at  the  outset  with  such  commonplaces  of  tradi- 
tion, reference,  and  allusion  as  are  continually  used  by 
English  authors.  With  this  should  go  training  in 
accurate  oral  re-statement,  in  imaginative  thought, 
and  in  healthy  poetic  appreciation.  The  Commen- 
tary appended  to  the  myths  will  suggest  to  teachers 
additional  illustrations  of  the  myths  from  poetry, 
painting,  and  sculpture,  and  some  standard  interpre- 
tations of  them.  The  study  should  be  accompanied 
by  constant  exercise  in  composition,  both  written  and 

*  The  following  is  a  general  statement  of  the  requirements  for 
entrance  in  English  to  the  University  of  California.  But  for  the 
particular  items  as  required  from  year  to  year,  and  for  substitu- 
tions allowed  to  accredited  High  Schools,  see  the  Register,  or  the 
Admission  Circular  of  each  year,  which  may  be  obtained  from  the 
Recorder  of  the  Faculties,  Berkeley. 


Suggestions  to  Teachers.  9 

oral,  with  special  emphasis  upon  good  sentence-struct- 
ure and  punctuation.  For  details  concerning  the 
method  of  study,  see  Preface  and  Introduction  to 
Gayley's  Classic  Myths  in  English  Literature,  and 
Suggestions  to  Teachers,  §  6,  below. 

4.  Simple  Prose: 

The  Alhambra,  touched  with  the  romance  of  a  dis- 
tant age;  or 

Tom  Brown,  touched  with  the  romance  of  boyhood; 

Sir  Roger  de  Coverly,  touched  with  quaint  humor 
and  satire.*     See  Suggestions  to  Teachers,  §  9. 

5.  Short  Poems,  mostly  narrative,  descriptive,  or 
idyllic: 

(a)  English:  Some  twelve,  of  the  scope  and  charac- 
ter of  the  following:  Milton's  L' Allegro  and  II  Pense- 
roso;  Goldsmith's  Deserted  Village  and  The  Traveller; 
Cowper's  Winter  Morning's  Walk;  Burns'  Cotter's 
Saturday  Night  and  Tarn  O'Shanter;  Coleridge's  Rime 
of  the  Ancient  Mariner;  Byron's  Prisoner  of  Chillon; 
Macaulay's  Horatius;  Tennyson's  Morte  D' Arthur. 

These  and  similar  poems  may  be  found,  with  anno- 
tation, in  Hales'  Longer  English  Poems  (Macmillan), 
or  Syle's  From  Milton  to  Tennyson  (Allyn  &  Bacon, 
Boston). 

(b)  American:  Snow-Bound. 

It  is  presupposed  that  Evangeline  has  been  read  in 
one  of  the  grammar  grades. 

These  poems  are  to  be  studied  comparatively,  as 
illustrating  the  characteristics  of  the  authors  and  re- 
flecting the  thought  of  their  times.  Prosody  should 
be  extended  pari  passu  with  the  varying  forms  of  metre. 

*  Not  a  meagre  selection  of  the  papers,  but  the  complete  series 
from  the  Spectator  (thirty-three  essays,  by  Addison,  Steele,  and 
Budgell):  Allyn  &  Bacon,  American  Book  Co.,  or  Cassell. 


10  English  in  Secondary  Schools. 

Grammatical  and  rhetorical  apparatus  should  subserve 
the  purposes  of  interpretation  and  of  criticism. 

6.  The  Shakespearian  Drama:  Two  plays,  preferably 
The  Merchant  of  Venice,  and  Julius  Csesar  or  Macbeth. 

7.  Prose,  the  Historical  Essay:  Macaulay's  Warren 
Hastings. 

Here  is  the  natural  line  of  demarcation  between  the 
more  elementary  and  the  advanced  work  of  the  High 
School  course  in  English.  For  the  remainder  of  the 
course  (listed  in  the  Register  as  English  14)  a  foreign 
modern  language  may  be  substituted  on  entrance  to 
the  University  of  California.  But  it  is  believed  that 
the  following  subjects  (8,  9, 10)  admirably  supplement 
the  preceding;  and  it  is  noteworthy  that  in  the  best 
High  Schools  the  whole  course  is  pursued  by  all  pupils. 

8.  Orations  and  Arguments:  Three  orations,  includ- 
ing one  by  Burke,  from  Bradley's  Orations  and  Argu- 
ments (Allyn  &  Bacon,  Boston:  1894),  or  Three  of 
Burke's  American  speeches  (Payne's  Burke's  Select 
Works,  Vol.  1;  George's  Burke's  American  Orations). 

The  chief  value  of  these  selections  lies,  first,  in  their 
treatment  of  great  and  far-reaching  questions  in  the 
light  of  universal  ideas;  and,  second,  in  their  masterly 
handling  of  argument. 

For  further  remarks,  see  Suggestions  to  Teachers,  §  10. 

9.  Poems  *  mostly  lyric,  reflective,  didactic,  and 
satirical: — 


*The  poems  to  be  prepared  for  entrance  examination  (University 
of  California)  are,  in  general,  taken  from  lists  2,  5, 6, 9,  as  indicated, 
but  for  the  items  as  required  from  year  to  year,  and  for  the  substi- 
tutions allowed  in  accredited  schools,  see  the  University  Register, 
or  the  Admission  Circular.  In  1894,  lists  5  and  9  consisted  of 
Hales'  Longer  English  Poems  (except  MacFlecknoe,  Laodamia, 
and  the  selections  from  Johnson,  Scott,  and  Shelley),  Whittier's 


Suggestions  to  Teachers.  11 

(a)  English:  Some  fifteen  poems  of  the  scope  and 
character  of  the  following:  Spenser's  Prothalamion; 
Milton's  Lycidas,  Hymn  on  the  Nativity,  and  Comus; 
Dry  den's  Alexander's  Feast,  Song  for  St.  Cecilia's  Day, 
and  Epistle  to  Congreve;  Collins' The  Passions;  Pope's 
The  Rape  of  the  Lock,  or  Three  of  the  Epistles;  Thom- 
son's Winter;  Johnson's  Vanity  of  Human  Wishes; 
Gray's  Elegy,  The  Progress  of  Poesy,  and  The  Bard; 
Cowper's  Heroism,  Lines  on  my  Mother's  Picture; 
Burns'  Twa  Dogs;  Byron's  Childe  Harold  (selections); 
Keat's  The  Eve  of  St.  Agnes;  Shelley's  Euganean 
Hills,  The  Cloud,  and  The  Skylark;  Wordsworth's 
Laodamia,  Ode  on  the  Intimations  of  Immortality, 
and  Tintern  Abbey;  Matthew  Arnold's  Scholar-Gypsy; 
Browning's  Transcript  from  Euripides  (Balaustion's 
Adventure);  Tennyson's  Oenone. 

These  poems  may  best  be  chosen  from  Hales'  Longer 
English  Poems  (Macmillan)  or  Syle's  From  Milton 
to  Tennyson  (Allyn  &  Bacon). 

(b)  American:  Lowell's  The  Vision  of  Sir  Launfal.* 
To  be  so  studied  as  to  develop  the  great  facts  of 

chronological  sequence  and  relationship  in  English  lit- 
erature, the  distinct  types  and  schools  of  poetry,  and 
the  characteristics  of  the  great  epochs  and  groups.  To 
this  end  all  prose  and  poetry  previously  read  in  the 
course  is  to  be  brought  once  more  within  the  field  of 
this  comprehensive  view.  No  history  of  English  lit- 
erature need  be  used  for  recitation  in  class.     A  wise 

Snow-Bound,  Longfellow's  Evangeline,  Lowell's  Sir  Launfal,  and 
Milton's  Comus.  But  the  following  substitutions  were  allowed  in 
accredited  schools  :  For  Comus,  Milton's  Paradise  Lost,  Book  1  or 
2,  or  5  or  6  (Books  1  and  2,  edited  by  Macmillan  ;  Books  5  and  6,  by- 
Verity;  Macmillan  &  Co.);  for  Sir  Launfal,  Tennyson's  Enid,  or 
Gareth  and  Lynette  (edited  by  G.  C.  Macaulay,  Macmillan  &  Co.) 
For  (10)  The  Newcomes,  George  Eliot's  Silas  Marner  was  allowed 
to  be  substituted. 


12  English  in  Secondary  Schools. 

instructor  may,  in  a  few  hours,  convey  to  the  class  an 
outline  of  the  salient  facts,  features,  and  periods  of 
English  literature,  that  will  suffice  to  correlate  the 
authors  and  masterpieces  required  in  the  preparatory 
course.  Only  those  dates  should  be  given  that  are  of 
evident  import;  they  should  be  given  in  their  sequence, 
and  should  find  a  permanent  abode  in  the  memory  of 
the  pupil. 

X  10.  Prose,  the  Novel:  Thackeray's  The  Newcomes.* 

For  objects  and  methods  of  study,  see  Suggestions  to 
Teachers,  §  11. 


II.     SUGGESTIONS  TO  TEACHERS. 

Introductory.  On  the  general  distribution  of 
studies  and  the  periods  to  be  allotted  to  each,  the 
following  paragraphs  from  the  recommendation  made 
by  the  English  Conference  to  the  Committee  on  Second- 
ary School  Studies  of  the  National  Council  of  Educa- 
tion (1893,  pp.  90-91 )  should  be  especially  noted: 

"The  Conference  is  of  opinion  that  the  study  of 
English  should  be  pursued  in  the  High  School  for  five 
hours  a  week  during  the  entire  course  of  four  years. 
This  would  make  the  total  amount  of  available  time 
not  far  from  eight  hundred  hours  (or  periods). 

"The  study  of  literature  and  training  in  the  expres- 
sion of  thought,  taken  together,  are  the  fundamental 
elements  in  any  proper  High  School  course  in  English, 
and  demand  not  merely  the  largest  share  of  time  and 
attention,  but  continuous  and  concurrent  treatment 
throughout  the  four  years.  The  Conference  therefore 
recommends  the  assignment  of  three  hours  a  week  for 

*  See  footnote  on  page  10. 


Suggestions  to  Teachers.  ■  13 

four  years  (or  four  hundred  and  eighty  hours  in  the 
total)  to  the  study  of  literature,  and  the  assignment  of 
two  hours  a  week  for  the  first  two  years,  and  one  hour 
a  week  for  the  last  two  years  (or  two  hundred  and 
forty  hours  in  the  total)  to  training  in  composition. 
By  the  study  of  literature  the  Conference  means  the 
study  of  the  works  of  good  authors,  not  the  study  of 
a  manual  of  literary  history. 

"  Rhetoric,  during  the  earlier  part  of  the  High  School 
course,  connects  itself  directly,  on  the  one  hand,  with 
the  study  of  literature,  furnishing  the  student  with 
apparatus  for  analysis  and  criticism,  and,  on  the  other 
hand,  with  practice  in  composition,  acquainting  the 
student  with  principles  and  maxims  relating  to  effect- 
ive discourse.  For  this  earlier  stage,  therefore,  extend- 
ing through  the  first  two  years,  no  assignment  of  hours 
to  rhetoric  has  been  deemed  advisable,  and  an  assign- 
ment of  one  hour  a  week  in  the  third  year  (a  total  of 
forty  hours)  is  thought  sufficient  for  any  systematic 
view  of  rhetoric  that  should  be  attempted  in  the  High 
School.  It  will  be  observed,  however,  that  if  the 
teacher  has  borne  in  mind  the  practical  uses  of  rhet- 
oric in  the  first  two  years,  he  will  have  conveyed  the 
essentials  of  the  art  (with  or  without  references  to  a 
text-book)  before  the  systematic  view  begins,  so  that 
this  view  will  be  a  kind  of  codification  of  principles 
already  applied  in  practice.  . 

"The  history  of  English  literature  should  be  taught  * 
incidentally,  in  connection  with  the  pupil's  study  of 
particular  authors  and  works;  the  mechanical  use  of 
manuals  of  literature  should  be  avoided,  and  the  com- 
mitting to  memory  of  names  and  dates  should  not  be 
mistaken  for  culture.  In  the  fourth  year,  however,  an 
attempt  may  be  made,  by  means  of  lectures  or  other- 

2* 


14  English  in  Secondary  Schools. 

wise,  to  give  the  pupil  a  view  of  our  literature  as  a 
whole  and  to  acquaint  him  with  the  relations  between 
periods.  This  instruction  should  accompany  —  not 
supersede  —  a  chronologically  arranged  sequence  of 
authors.  In  connection  with  it  a  syllabus  or  brief 
primer  may  be  used. 

"To  the  subject  of  Historical  and  Systematic  (or 
Formal)  Grammar,  one  hour  a  week  in  the  fourth 
year  (a  total  of  forty  hours)  may  be  assigned. 

"In  the  present  state  of  text-books  and  teachers, 
the  study  of  the  History  of  English  Language  cannot, 
perhaps,  be  generally,  or  even  extensively,  introduced 
into  the  High  Schools.  It  is  the  opinion  of  the  Con- 
ference, however,  that  certain  parts  of  that  study  may 
be  profitably  undertaken  during  the  last  year  of  the 
High  School  course,  and  that  some  systematic  knowl- 
edge of  the  history  of  the  language  is  of  value  to  the 
student  who  goes  no  farther  than  the  High  School,  as 
well  as  to  the  student  preparing  for  college." 

With  this  outline  of  subjects  and  periods  the  Eng- 
lish Department  of  the  University  of  California 
heartily  concurs.  It  would  also  call  attention  to,  and 
emphasize,  the  opinion  expressed  by  the  Conference, 
that  "the  best  results  in  the  teaching  of  English  in 
High  Schools  cannot  be  secured  without  the  aid  given 
by  the  study  of  some  other  language,  and  that  Latin 
and  German,  by  reason  of  their  fuller  inflectional 
system,  are  especially  suited  to  this  end."  Not  only 
is  it  impossible  for  a  pupil,  without  the  study  of  Latin, 
to  obtain  the  discipline  and  the  culture  pertaining  to 
an  English  education,  but  it  is  vain  for  a  teacher, 
without  a  fair  acquaintance  with  Latin  or  Greek,  and 
at  least  one  modern  foreign  language,  to  attempt 
instruction  in  English. 


Suggestions  to  Teachers.  15 

A.    Language. 

§  1.  Grammar.  The  knowledge  of  Grammar 
which  a  pupil  entering  the  High  School  must  be 
presumed  to  have,  maybe  stated  as  follows:  (1)  A 
thorough,  practical  acquaintance  with  the  elements  of 
English  Grammar,  its  Parts  of  Speech,  its  few  re- 
maining Inflections,  its  necessary  classifications  and 
terminology;  and  (2)  such  insight  into  structural  and 
syntactical  relations  as  will  enable  the  pupil  to  analyze* 
any  sentence  involving  no  special  or  idiomatic  diffi- 
culties. With  these  there  should  go  (3)  the  correct 
spelling  and  pronunciation  of  words  actually  in  the 
pupil's  use,  and  especially  the  habit  of  noting  the 
spelling  and  ascertaining  the  pronunciation  of  new 
words  as  they  come  to  him.  This  last,  it  must  be 
remembered,  is  a  piece  of  work  which  is  never  finished, 
and  so  can  never  be  dismissed;  but  the  other  two  rep- 
resent a  definite  and  limited  attainment,  quite  within 
grammar-school  possibilities,  and  that  attainment 
should  be  rigorously  exacted. 

This  elementary  grammatical  knowledge  and  this 
logical  power  of  analysis  presupposed  upon  entrance, 
should  be  kept  in  constant  growth  and  exercise  through- 
out the  High  School  course.  In  the  study  of  literature 
they  should  ever  be  the  familiar  instruments  of  investi- 
gation, of  interpretation,  and  of  criticism — means  for 
unfolding  the  variety  and  resources  of  literary  art  and 
expression.     In  the  composition  exercise  they  should 

*  It  seems  necessary  to  remark  in  passing  that  the  device  known 
as  a  "diagram"  is  no  analysis,  as  some  suppose  it  to  be,  but  only  a 
swift  and  convenient — though  very  inadequate — scheme  of  nota- 
tion. The  only  true  analysis  is  a  mental  process;  and  any  teach- 
ing which  confounds  a  tangle  of  lines  with  that  process,  or  makes 
the  thinking  dependent  upon  the  lines,  or  substitutes  for  mental 
effort  and  insight  some  superficial  and  readily-acquired  knack,  is 
simply  pernicious. 


16  English  in  Secondary  Schools. 

be  constantly  appealed  to,  as  the  only  sure  means 
whereby  correction  may  be  made  generic — applicable 
to  whole  groups  of  errors — instead  of  specific,  or  limited 
to  the  particular  case  in  hand;  and  thus  they  should 
lead  up  to  self-correction  and  self-criticism.  Such 
instruments  can,  with  a  little  skill,  be  made  to  grow 
stronger  and  more  efficient  by  their  very  use,  and 
withouT  special  study  to  that  end.  It  may  be  well, 
however,  from  time  to  time  to  devote  an  hour  to  some 
limited  grammatical  topic,  and  to  insure  thus  a  fresh 
survey  and  a  consideration  of  points  unnoticed  before. 

C.  B.  B. 

§  2.  It  will  be  noticed  that  the  science  of  Grammar, 
or  Grammar  as  a  system,  taught  for  its  own  sake 
and  as  a  discipline  of  the  mind,  has  not  yet  been 
mentioned  in  this  scheme.  The  purpose  is  not  to  omit 
it  altogether,  but  to  defer  it  to  a  period  of  the  pupil's 
development  when  his  powers  of  abstracting  and 
generalizing  have  gained  sufficient  strength  and  play 
to  make  the  study  both  interesting  and  profitable.  The 
lamentable  results  of  the  earlier  plan  of  forcing  this 
science  upon  immature  minds,  and  the  equally  lament- 
able results  of  the  present  plan  of  leaving  Grammar 
out  altogether,  have  led  to  the  suggestion  that  a  proper 
place  for  such  a  comprehensive  survey  may  be  formed 
somewhere  near  the  end  of  the  High  School  course. 
This  suggestion  was  warmly  taken  up  by  the  recent 
Conference  on  English  held  at  Poughkeepsie,  N.  Y., 
and  is  made  the  subject  of  special  recommendation  in 
its   report.*      In   this   recommendation   the   English 

*  Embodied  in  the  Report  of  the  Committee  on  Secondary  School 
Studies,  recently  issued  by  the  United  States  Bureau  of  Education. 
This  publication,  already  twice  referred  to,  is  earnestly  commended 
to  the  attention  of  all  interested  in  the  work  of  High  Schools. 


Suggestions  to  Teachers.  17 

Department  of  this  University  joins,  and  bespeaks  for 
the  experiment  the  kind  cooperation  of  teachers  in  all 
our  preparatory  schools.  The  subject  is,  no  doubt, 
beset  with  difficulties  growing  out  of  the  novelty  of 
treatment  called  for,  and  the  lack  of  satisfactory  text- 
books. Such  difficulties,  however,  will  but  enhance  the 
glory  of  success.  The  treatment  should  be  scientific,! 
historical,  comparative.  It  should  deal  not  with  tradi- 
tions and  doctrines  and  rules,  but  steadily  and  only 
with  the  actual  facts  of  language,  carefully  ascertained 
and  so  systematized  as  to  exhibit  their  true  bearing 
and  relations.  It  should  accept  heartily  the  great  fact 
of  variety  in  speech.  It  should  recognize  without 
reprobation  or  reserve  not  merely  the  standard  English 
of  books  and  its  equally  noble  brother,  the  spoken 
English  of  daily  life,  but  dialects  as  well,  and  even  the 
familiar  patois  of  childhood.  It  should  avail  itself 
freely  of  analogies  and  differences  not  merely  between 
these,  but  between  English  and  any  other  tongues  the 
pupils  may  chance  to  be  studying.  And,  lastly,  it 
must  accept  and  use  that  other  great  fact  of  growth 
and  change;  must  show  in  some  clear  way  how  things 
have  come  to  be  as  they  are,  and  must  defend  us 
against  such  error  as  that  of  supposing,  for  example, 
that  Shakespeare  must  be  wrong  when  his  usage  does 
not  coincide  with  our  own;  or  that  good  usage  at  any 
stage  is  a  finalty. 

It  must  not  be  supposed  from  the  length  of  these 
remarks  that  this  general  survey  need  occupy  any  great 
length  of  time.  On  the  contrary,  rapidity  is  in  some 
measure  essential  to  its  success  as  a  comprehensive 
view.  It  is  thought  that  five  weeks  of  concentrated 
effort  upon  text-book  and  lectures  will  suffice  to  accom- 
plish all  that  is  wise  to  attempt  in  the  High  School. 


18  English  in  Secondary  Schools. 

In  spite  of  some  drawbacks,  Whitney's  Essentials  of 
English  Grammar  (Ginn  &  Co.)  is  still,  perhaps,  the 
best  single  text-book  available  for  the  general  subject. 
A  little  book  just  published,  A  Method  of  English,  by- 
James  Gow  (Macmillan),  seems  likely  to  prove  a 
valuable  acquisition,  and  we  should  be  glad  to  see  it 
thoroughly  tested  by  competent  teachers  in  the  school- 
room. Whitney's  work  is  specially  valuable  for  its 
discipline  in  the  scientific  spirit  and  method,  for^its 
(  clear  presentation  of  grammatical  form,  and  for  its 
systematic  views.  Gow's  work  is  professedly  for  junior 
classes,  and  has  a  certain  air  of  easiness,  yet  it  treats 
of  such  subjects  as  Phonetics,  Dialect,  and  the  bearing 
of  grammar  upon  Rhetoric  and  Poetics.  On  the 
analytical  side,  Greene's  Analysis  of  the  English  Lan- 
guage (Cowperthwaite  &  Co.)  is  probably  unsurpassed 
as  a  masterly  discussion  within  school-book  limits  of 
the  logical  relations  which  subsist  between  the  elements 
of  sentences.  Its  arbitrary  system  of  notation  and 
its  numerical  designations  may  be  disregarded  without 
serious  loss.  But  to  have  mastered,  for  example,  its 
discussion  of  the  various  aspects  of  the  causal  rela- 
tion, is  to  have  the  cobwebs  swept  out  of  one's  brain, 
and  to  experience  the  sensation  of  clear  vision.  This 
work  is  specially  adapted  to  such  topical  reviews  as 
have  been  suggested  above. 

For  the  teacher's  own  study,  and  for  occasional 
reference  by  the  pupils,  the  following  works  are  recom- 
mended: Abbott's  Shakespearian  Grammar  (Macmil- 
lan),— formless,  unreadable,  and  unteachable,  yet  a 
mine  of  valuable  information  to  those  who  will  dig  for 
it.  It  is  furthermore  rendered  indispensable  by  the 
constant  reference  to  it  in  annotated  texts  of  Shake- 
speare.    Morris'  Historical  Outlines  of  English  Acci- 


Suggestions  to  Teachers.  19 

dence,  and  its  companion  volume,  Kellner's  Historical 
Outlines  of  English  Syntax  (both  by  Macmillan),  are 
works  constructed  on  the  general  plan  of  the  Shake- 
spearian Grammar,  but  deal  with  the  development  of 
our  Accidence  and  Syntax  throughout  the  whole 
English  period.  Skeat's  Primer  of  English  Etymol- 
ogy (Macmillan)  should,  perhaps,  have  been  mentioned 
first  in  this  list  as  the  proper  introduction  to  much 
that  is  treated  of  in  these  other  works,  and  in  general, 
to  the  newer  side  of  grammar.  Sweet's  New  English 
Grammar,  Part  I  (Macmillan),  is  a  treatise — still 
incomplete — by  one  of  the  foremost  students  of  the 
Ntime.  Its  General  Introduction,  though  acute  and 
original,  is  almost  hopelessly  obscured  by  the  writer's 
isolation  in  thought,  and  by  his  preference  of  an  arbi- 
trary, and  at  times  whimsical,  terminology  of  his  own 
invention,  to  one  which  would  be  generally  intelligi- 
ble. The  rest  of  the  book  deals  with  the  important 
subjects  of  Phonology  and  Accidence;  it  suffers  less 
from  the  faults  just  named;  and  is  a  storehouse  of  the 
results  attained  by  recent  scholarship.  The  book  is 
by  no  means  easy  reading,  but  is  well-nigh  indis- 
pensable to  a  teacher  who  would  attain  the  sure  basis 
of  knowledge  and  the  true  point  of  view  for  the 
conduct  of  such  a  general  survey  as  has  been  outlined 
above. 

For  the  history  of  our  language,  Professor  Louns- 
bury's  little  book,  The  English  Language,  still  keeps 
its  place  as  one  of  the  best  short  and  comprehensive 
sketches  we  have.  A  recent  study  by  Champneys, 
The  History  of  English  (Macmillan,  1893),  has  the 
advantage  of  fuller  treatment  of  some  topics — notably 
Dialect — and  a  fuller  illustration  by  examples. 

C.  B.  B. 


1 


20  English  in  Secondary  Schools. 

y  §  3.  Word-Study.  Words  are  the  sole  elements  of 
all  literary  expression;  upon  their  weight  and  color 
depend  all  possible  literary  effects.  Therefore  they 
must  never  be  neglected  in  a  study  of  Literature.  The 
study  of  them  begins  empirically  in  infancy,  and,  in 
one  way  and  another,  they  take  up  a  large  share  of 
the  child's  attention  in  all  the  lower  schools.  What 
remains  for  the  High  School  to  do,  is  to  concentrate 
and  crystallize  these  efforts  into  a  habit  of  looking 
keenly  at  words — of  recognizing  their  kinship  and 
groupings — and  to  teach  the  pupil  how  to  ascertain  for 
himself  whatever  he  needs  to  know  about  them.  He 
is  to  be  trained  (that  is,  in  the  use  of  standard  diction- 
aries, both  general  and  etymological)  so  that  all  the 
information  they  afford  may  be  within  his  easy  reach; 
and,  further,  is  to  be  trained  to  apply  this  information 
to  a  word  in  any  given  context,  with  a  view  to  deter- 
mine its  precise  value  and  force  in  that  context.  It  is 
thought  that  this  training  can  be  better  accomplished 
in  connection  with  opportunities  as  they  naturally 
come  in  one's  way,  than  by  perfunctory  study  of  any 
list  of  words  or  of  any  text-book  of  Word-Analysis. 
And  attainment  may  be  best  shown,  not  by  direct 
appeal  to  the  memory,  but  by  testing  the  pupil's  power 
to  find,  and  intelligently  to  use  in  actual  cases,  the 
information  accessible  in  works  of  reference.  One 
caution  seems  still  to  need  repetition.  Questions  con- 
cerning the  derivation  and  the  history  of  words  are 
questions  as  to  what  the  facts  were.  In  seeking  the 
answers  to  such  questions,  therefore,  it  is  idle  to  ap- 
peal— as  many  nevertheless  do — to  some  inner  light 
of  reason,  to  some  ready  conjecture,  or  even  to  the  ap- 
parently learned  etymologies  of  Webster  or  Worcester. 
Guess-work  is  no  knowledge.     If  neither  the  Century 


Suggestions  to  Teachers.  21 

Dictionary  nor  that  of  the  Philological  Society  is 
within  reach,  the  best  available  authority  is  probably 
the  complete  edition  of  Skeat's  Etymological  Diction- 
ary. And  even  in  using  this  work  one  should  not  fail 
to  distinguish  between  what  is  stated  as  fact  and  what 

is  stated  as  conjecture. 

C.  B.  B. 

§  4.  Composition.  The  object  of  this  training  is 
three-fold:  (1)  To  develop  the  sense  of  Form,  Order, 
and  Coherence  through  habitual  practice  of  the  related 
virtues  in  composition — good  mechanical  form,  general 
legibility  and  neatness,  correct  spelling,  punctuation, 
and  paragraphing,  orderly  structure  and  arrangement 
of  parts;  (2)  to  emancipate  the  deliberate  expression 
of  thought  from  the  tenor  and  constraint  which  usually 
invest  it  in  the  minds  of  children;  and  (3)  to  stimu- 
late into  vivid  action  the  mental  powers  of  perception, 
invention,  synthesis,  and  the  organization  of  thought 
and  experience.  As  for  the  first  object,  eternal  vigi- 
lance is  the  price  of  attaining  it;  and  this  fact  cannot 
be  urged  upon  teachers  too  often.  The  most  common 
form  of  deficiency  among  students  who  apply  to  enter 
a  university — and  not  a  few  of  these  actually  get  in — 
is  that  they  can  neither  read  nor  write.  The  discour- 
aging feature  in  all  such  cases  is  that  the  ghosts  of 
these  deficiencies  forever  block  the  student's  way  to 
better  things.  This  is  not  the  place  to  discuss  means 
which  may  be  used  in  aggravated  instances;  but  insist- 
ence that  no  scribbling  be  done,  that  all  writing — even 
of  first  drafts — be  done  with  full  attention  to  spelling 
and  punctuation,  that  errors  be  not  found  for  the  pupil, 
but  by  him,  and  that  rewriting  of  the  page  be  the  only 
correction  allowed.  These  are  measures  which  may 
transform  the  delinquent,  if  they  do  not  first  translate 


20  English  in  Secondary  Schools. 

J  §  3.  Word-Study.  Words  are  the  sole  elements  of 
all  literary  expression;  upon  their  weight  and  color 
depend  all  possible  literary  effects.  Therefore  they 
must  never  be  neglected  in  a  study  of  Literature.  The 
study  of  them  begins  empirically  in  infancy,  and,  in 
one  way  and  another,  they  take  up  a  large  share  of 
the  child's  attention  in  all  the  lower  schools.  What 
remains  for  the  High  School  to  do,  is  to  concentrate 
and  crystallize  these  efforts  into  a  habit  of  looking 
keenly  at  words — of  recognizing  their  kinship  and 
groupings — and  to  teach  the  pupil  how  to  ascertain  for 
himself  whatever  he  needs  to  know  about  them.  He 
is  to  be  trained  (that  is,  in  the  use  of  standard  diction- 
aries, both  general  and  etymological)  so  that  all  the 
information  they  afford  may  be  within  his  easy  reach; 
and,  further,  is  to  be  trained  to  apply  this  information 
to  a  word  in  any  given  context,  with  a  view  to  deter- 
mine its  precise  value  and  force  in  that  context.  It  is 
thought  that  this  training  can  be  better  accomplished 
in  connection  with  opportunities  as  they  naturally 
come  in  one's  way,  than  by  perfunctory  study  of  any 
list  of  words  or  of  any  text-book  of  Word-Analysis. 
And  attainment  may  be  best  shown,  not  by  direct 
appeal  to  the  memory,  but  by  testing  the  pupil's  power 
to  find,  and  intelligently  to  use  in  actual  cases,  the 
information  accessible  in  works  of  reference.  One 
caution  seems  still  to  need  repetition.  Questions  con- 
cerning the  derivation  and  the  history  of  words  are 
questions  as  to  what  the  facts  were.  In  seeking  the 
answers  to  such  questions,  therefore,  it  is  idle  to  ap- 
peal— as  many  nevertheless  do — to  some  inner  light 
of  reason,  to  some  ready  conjecture,  or  even  to  the  ap- 
parently learned  etymologies  of  Webster  or  Worcester. 
Guess-work  is  no  knowledge.     If  neither  the  Century 


Suggestions  to  Teachers.  21 

Dictionary  nor  that  of  the  Philological  Society  is 
within  reach,  the  best  available  authority  is  probably 
the  complete  edition  of  Skeat's  Etymological  Diction- 
ary. And  even  in  using  this  work  one  should  not  fail 
to  distinguish  between  what  is  stated  as  fact  and  what 

is  stated  as  conjecture. 

C.  B.  B. 

§  4.  Composition.  The  object  of  this  training  is 
three-fold:  (1)  To  develop  the  sense  of  Form,  Order, 
and  Coherence  through  habitual  practice  of  the  related 
virtues  in  composition — good  mechanical  form,  general 
legibility  and  neatness,  correct  spelling,  punctuation, 
and  paragraphing,  orderly  structure  and  arrangement 
of  parts;  (2)  to  emancipate  the  deliberate  expression 
of  thought  from  the  tenor  and  constraint  which  usually 
invest  it  in  the  minds  of  children;  and  (3)  to  stimu- 
late into  vivid  action  the  mental  powers  of  perception, 
invention,  synthesis,  and  the  organization  of  thought 
and  experience.  As  for  the  first  object,  eternal  vigi- 
lance is  the  price  of  attaining  it;  and  this  fact  cannot 
be  urged  upon  teachers  too  often.  The  most  common 
form  of  deficiency  among  students  who  apply  to  enter 
a  university — and  not  a  few  of  these  actually  get  in — 
is  that  they  can  neither  read  nor  write.  The  discour- 
aging feature  in  all  such  cases  is  that  the  ghosts  of 
these  deficiencies  forever  block  the  student's  way  to 
better  things.  This  is  not  the  place  to  discuss  means 
which  may  be  used  in  aggravated  instances;  but  insist- 
ence that  no  scribbling  be  done,  that  all  writing — even 
of  first  drafts — be  done  with  full  attention  to  spelling 
and  punctuation,  that  errors  be  not  found  for  the  pupil, 
but  by  him,  and  that  rewriting  of  the  page  be  the  only 
correction  allowed.  These  are  measures  which  may 
transform  the  delinquent,  if  they  do  not  first  translate 


24  English  in  Secondary  Schools. 

as  well.  Such  composition  should  have  careful  super- 
vision before  they  are  written  out,  with  reference  to 
material  and  arrangement  of  parts;  they  should  be 
carefully  criticised  when  finished,  and,  if  they  need  it, 
should  be  rewritten,  the  pupil  making  his  own  correc- 
tions after  the  nature  of  the  faults  has  been  made  clear 
to  him.  Work  of  this  sort  should  grow  in  power  and 
interest  to  the  very  end  of  the  course. 

For  detailed  suggestion  the  teacher  is  referred  to 
such  works  as  the  following:  Miss  Irene  Hardy's  Com- 
position Exercises  (Henry  Holt  &  Co.) — an  admirable 
discussion,  by  a  veteran  teacher,  of  the  fields  of  thought 
which  naturally  attract  young  minds,  and  the  variety 
of  topics  which  may  be  found  in  them  suitable  to  this 
purpose;  Misses  Keeler  and  Davis'  Studies  in  English 
Composition  (Allyn  &  Bacon) — a  text-book  intended 
for  High  School  classes,  outlining  a  definite  course,  and 
presenting  models;  Scott  and  Denny's  Paragraph- 
Writing  (Allyn  &  Bacon);  Newcomer's  English  Com- 
position, and  Genung's  Outlines  of  Rhetoric  (Ginn  & 
Co.)  ;  Fletcher  and  Carpenter's  Introduction  to 
Theme- Writing  (Allyn  &  Bacon) — all  written  with 
students  of  college  grade  more  immediately  in  view, 
but  suggestive  also  for  work  at  a  lower  stage.  For  a 
wider  view  over  this  field  the  teacher  may  well  read 
Professor  Wendell's  English  Composition  (Charles 
Scribner's  Sons). 

Opportunity  should  be  found  for  oral  composition, 
not  only  in  set  debates  and  talks  appointed  for  this 
purpose,  but  far  more  in  the  daily  recitations.  Too 
rarely  in  the  recitation  is  sufficient  importance  attached 
to  the  formation  of  the  habit  of  complete  and  finished 
utterance — without  prompting — of  all  that  the  pupil 
has  to  say  upon  the  topic  proposed.     The  sharp  and 


Suggestions  to  Teachers.  25 

rattling  volley  of  question  and  answer  has  its  function 
and  place  as  a  general  quickener  of  thought  through- 
out a  class;  while  keen  and  skillful  cross-questioning 
in  the  Socratic  form  is  a  wonderful  revealer  of  the 
gaps  and  shallows  of  individual  knowledge.  But  no 
careful  teacher  will  allow  his  skill  in  either  of  these, 
nor  yet  his  own  nervousness  in  the  face  of  flagrant 
misstatement,  nor  the  impatient  dissent  of  others  in 
the  class,  to  stand  in  the  way  of  complete  utterance 
on  the  part  of  the  speaker.  For  the  habit  of  thus 
expressing  one's  self  implies  a  habit  of  thought  whose 
value  in  the  intellectual  life  can  scarcely  be  esti- 
mated— the  habit  of  grasping  things  as  wholes. 

C.  B.  B. 

§  5.  Rhetoric.  The  science  of  Rhetoric  is  closely 
allied  to  Logic,  and  demands  for  its  proper  exposition 
a  power  of  subtle  analysis  and  a  wide  acquaintance 
with  literary  forms.  It  has,  therefore,  no  proper  place 
in  the  High  School.  But,  as  in  the  case  of  Grammar, 
many  of  its  forms  and  elements  are  inevitably  encoun- 
tered at  an  early  stage;  and  if  these  be  mastered  thus 
objectively,  they  form  a  valuable  apparatus  of  investi- 
gation and  criticism,  which  blends  with  the  similar 
apparatus  derived  from  the  grammatical  side.  (See 
above,  under  Grammar,  §  1.)  Nearly  all  the  points  in 
Rhetoric  which  seem  important  at  this  stage  and  for 
these  uses,  may  be  grouped  under  the  Materials  and 
the  Mechanics  of  Expression;  i.  e.,  Words,  in  their 
effective  use  and  combination,  Figures  of  Speech,  and 
effective  Structure,  whether  of  the  sentence,  of  the  para- 
graph, or  of  complete  compositions.  Besides  these, 
there  should  be  a  good,  practical  understanding  of 
those  qualities  of  style  which  lie  within  the  pupil's 


26  English  in  Secondary  Schools. 

own  attainment,  viz.:  Simplicity  and  Clearness,  and  a 
speaking  acquaintance  with  the  more  obvious  aspects 
of  Energy,  Pathos,  and  Humor. 

Nearly  all  text-books  in  the  field  far  transcend  these 
simple  limits,  and  most  of  them  are  so  arranged  that 
it  is  difficult  to  separate  the  desirable  elements  from 
the  undesirable.  Some  are  books  of  literary  etiquette, 
and  their  interminable  "don'ts"  are  enlivened  by 
startling  parade  of  the  horrible  example — which,  after 
all,  has  few  terrors  for  those  for  whom  it  is  specially 
designed.  Some,  on  the  other  hand,  benevolently  at- 
tempt a  combination  of  all  useful  things — reminding 
one  of  the  universal  jack-knife.  The  materials  for  this 
elementary  study  may,  no  doubt,  be  gleaned  from  any 
one  of  them,  or  may  be  taught  without  any  text-book 
whatever.  But  if  a  text-book  must  be  put  into  the 
hands  of  the  pupils,  we  know  of  no  better  one  for  this 
purpose  than  Kellogg's  new  Text-Book  on  Rhetoric — 
omitting  the  paragraph-puzzles  in  the  earlier  chapters, 
and  certainly  everything  beyond  Lesson  71. 

C.  B.  B. 

B.     Literature. 

y  Introduction  to  Poetry.  The  study  of  poetry  must 
be  approached  not  only  from  the  imaginative  but  from 
the  historical  side;  for  the  material  of  much  of  our 
poetry  is  to  be  found  in  the  traditions  of  the  ancients. 
Unfortunately  the  "utilitarian"  protest  against  the 
cultivation  of  "  dead  "  languages  has  to  a  lamentable 
degree  cut  us  off  from  these  sources  of  our  literature. 
An  evident,  though  inadequate,  means  of  tempering  the 
consequence  of  this  result  of  the  classics  is  the  study 
of  them  through  translations  and  summaries.  This 
means  is  less  inadequate  if  the  imaginative  products 
of  antiquity  be  studied  in  a  garb  somewhat  resembling 


Suggestions  to  Teachers.  27 

the  original — the  garb  of  modern  poetry  and  art.  For 
these  reasons  an  acquaintance  with  the  myths  of  the 
Greeks,  the  Romans,  the  Norsemen,  and  the  Germans, 
as  they  are  reproduced  in  the  best  English  literature, 
is  an  excellent  introduction  to  the  detailed  study  of 
poetry. 

The  benefits  accruing  from  such  a  study  of  the  classic 
myths  are  both  general  and  specific. 

In  general,  classic  mythology  has  been  for  poets  a 
treasure-house  replete  with  jewels.  It  has  been  for 
readers  a  clue  to  the  labyrinth  of  art,  not  merely  a 
thread  of  tradition  but  of  sympathy.  It  has  led  men 
to  appreciate  the  motives  and  conditions  of  ancient  art 
and  literature,  and  the  uniform  and  ordered  evolution 
of  the  aesthetic  sense.  It  has  also  quickened  the  imagi- 
native and  emotional  faculties  of  the  moderns  in  no 
inappreciable  degree.  Long  familiarity  wTith  the  sim- 
plicity, the  restraint,  the  severe  regard,  the  filial  awe 
that  pervade  the  myths  of  Greece  and  Rome,  or  with 
the  newness  of  life,  the  naivete  and  the  romance  of 
Norse  and  Old  German  lore,  cannot  but  graciously 
temper  our  modern  estimate  of  artistic  worth.  It  must 
furthermore  be  borne  in  mind  that  the  myths  of  the 
ancients  are  the  earliest  literary  crystallization  of  social 
order  and  religious  fear,  and  are  consequently  of 
incalculable  value  to  us  as  recording  the  incipient 
history  of  religious  ideals  and  of  moral  conduct. 

In  special,  the  study  of  the  classic  myths,  when 
illustrated  by  masterpieces  of  literature  and  art, 
should  lead  to  the  appreciation  of  concrete  artistic 
productions  of  both  these  kinds.  For,  a  previous 
acquaintance  with  the  material  of  literary  tradition 
heightens  the  appreciation  of  each  allusive  passage 
as  it  is  encountered;  it  enables  the  reader  to  sympa- 


28  English  in  Secondary  Schools. 

thize  with  the  mood  of  the  poet,  and  to  breathe  the 
atmosphere  in  which  the  poet  breathes.  And  to  the 
understanding  of  painting  and  sculpture,  a  knowledge 
of  the  myths  is  equally  indispensable. 

Finally,  this  study  quickens  the  aesthetic  judgment 
and  heightens  the  enjoyment  of  such  works  of  liter- 
ature and  art  as  not  treating  of  mythical  or  classical 
subjects  still  possess  the  characteristics  of  the  classic: 
the  unconscious  simplicity,  the  inevitable  and  per- 
ennial charm,  and  the  noble  ideality.  Most  of  the 
poems  included  in  an  English  course,  whether  they 
deal  with  classic  mythology  or  not,  mean  little  to  one 

who  is  devoid  of  the  spirit  of  classicism. 

C.  M.  G. 

§  6.  Mythology  in  Literature.  The  following 
suggestions  are  prepared  with  reference  to  the  volume 
named  The  Classic  Myths  in  English  Literature  (Ginn 
&  Co.): 

1.  The  book  may  be  well  assigned  for  regular  recita- 
tion to  the  Junior  Classes  in  High  Schools. 

2.  To  a  satisfactory  study  of  the  text,  and  of  the 
poetical  illustrations  and  references,  about  sixty  exer- 
cises will  be  necessary.  Thus,  in  the  Junior  Class, 
The  Classic  Myths  might  be  taken,  during  the  first 
term,  five  times  a  week  until  completed, — or,  preferably 
three  times  a  week,  Monday,  Wednesday,  Friday,  for 
twenty  weeks,  alternating  with  some  other  English 
work,  such  as  the  Lady  of  the  Lake,  which  would  fall 
on  the  intervening  days. 

3.  The  Introduction  is  intended  for  teachers  and 
general  readers;  not  for  pupils,  unless  it  be  accom- 
panied by  explanation. 

4.  With  a  class  of  young  pupils,  the  teacher  may 
find  it  wise  to  begin  at  the  fourth  chapter  ("  Greek 


Suggestions  to  Teachers.  29 

Myths  of  the  Creation"),  deferring  the  first  three  chap- 
ters until  the  class  is  better  able  to  appreciate  them; 
but,  if  the  pupils  are  not  too  young,  he  should  begin 
with  short  lessons  in  the  first  chapters,  assisting  the 
class  by  explanation  and  further  illustration  to  an 
understanding  of  the  origin,  the  meaning,  and  the 
importance  of  mythology.  Pupils  will  experience  no 
difficulty  in  mastering  these  chapters  when  they 
return  to  them,  or  review  them.  ' 

5.  The  myths  should  be  recited  topically;  and  since 
they  are  here  presented  in  a  logical  and  genealogical 
arrangement,  they  should  be  recited  in  this  order, — 
none  being  omitted  or  left  to  the  careless  reading  of 
the  pupil.  Otherwise,  a  confused  and .  insufficient 
knowledge  will  ensue. 

6.  The  poems  quoted  in  the  text  should  be  studied, 
not  only  as  illustrations  of  mythological  subjects,  but, 
when  they  deserve  it,  as  masterpieces;  and  many  of 
them  should  be  committed  to  memory. 

7.  The  Commentary  is  divided  into  sections  corre- 
sponding to  those  of  the  text.  The  Textual  and 
Interpretative  Notes  should  be  studied  by  the  pupil  in 
connection  with  each  lesson.  Such  notes  as  the  pupil 
does  not  understand  in  the  advance  lesson,  he  should 
be  required  to  master  in  the  general  review.  The 
Illustrative  Notes  may  be  used  by  the  teacher  in  vari- 
ous ways:  for  instance,  as  suggesting  poems  to  be  read 
or  studied  in  class,  or  photographs  to  be  displayed,  or 
as  furnishing  material  for  oral  reports  on  reading  done 
outside,  or  as  affording  subjects  for  exercises  in  Eng- 
lish Composition.  In  the  last  case,  pupils  might  well 
be  required  to  collate,  and  compare,  the  conceptions  of 
a  deity  or  a  hero  presented  in  two  or  more  poems,  or 

3 


/ 


30  English  in  Secondary  Schools. 

works  of  art;  and  to  state  carefully  the  conclusions 
obtained. 

8.  The  genealogical  tables  should  be  used  at  the 
discretion  of  the  teacher.  They  will  aid  in  making 
realistic  not  only  the  relationships,  but  also  the 
inherited  qualities  and  conditions  of  gods  and  heroes. 

9.  Since  the  table  of  contents  and  the  indexes  are 
fairly  exhaustive,  it  will  be  well  to  train  the  pupil 
in  the  use  of  them  from  the  outset.  Most  pupils  on 
entering  a  High  School  do  not  know  how  to  find  in- 
formation in  a  book  of  reference. 

10.  It  might  be  well  for  each  school  to  possess,  for 
purposes  of  reference  and  illustration,  a  copy  of  the 
edition  of  this  work,  interleaved  for  photographs  of 
paintings  and  sculptures,  published  by  the  Soule 
Photograph  Co.,  338  Washington  Street,  Boston.  [Or 
apply  to  W.  C.  Vickery,  224  Post  Street,  San  Francisco.] 
A  list  of  suitable  photographs  has  been  prepared  for 
Soule's  catalogue. 

11.  For  other  suggestions  with  regard  to  the  pur- 
pose and  method  of  teaching  this  subject,  see  Intro- 
duction to  The  Classic  Myths.  For  a  list  of  the 
engravings,  and  the  source  of  each,  see  pp.  xxii-xxvii. 
For  a  list  of  the  Genealogical  Tables,  see  xx-xxi.  For 
a  Synopsis  of  Rules  Governing  Pronunciation  of 
Names  (to  be  studied  by  all  pupils),  see  pp.  493,  494. 

C.  M.  G. 

§  7.  Poetry  (other  than  the  drama):  Lyric,  Narra- 
tive, Descriptive,  and  Reflective. 

1.  Purpose.  The  aim  of  the  teacher  in  dealing  with 
masterpieces  of  poetry  should  be  to  develop  in  his 
pupils  the  habit  -of  observing  closely  and  keenly  the 
phenomena  of  natural  and  human  existence,  with  a 


Suggestions  to  Teachers.  31 

view  to  the  sympathetic  understanding  of  their  sig- 
nificance as  parts  of  an  organized  and  living  whole; 
to  supply,  by  a  study  of  the  poetic  habit  of  mind,  the 
material  of  imaginative  knowledge,  and  the  stimulus 
to  healthy  imaginative  power;  to  cultivate  a  love  for 
the  expressive  in  nature  and  in  literature,  and  an 
appreciation  of  fitting  form  as  the  beautiful  and  true 
expression  of  its  content;  and,  finally,  to  emphasize 
the  verities  of  life  and  the  laws  of  conduct. 

2.  Method.  As  in  all  study  of  English  Classics,  the 
lessons  assigned  should  be  not  arbitrary  and  inconse- 
quential fragments  of  the  book,  but  integral  parts  of 
the  poem ;  and  the  interest  of  the  pupil  should  be  so 
aroused  as  to  insure  his  reading  the  whole  poem  out  of 
school  before  its  analysis  in  the  class-room  is  completed, 

(a)  Introductory:  The  study  of  the  poem  proper 
should  be  prefaced  by  investigation  into  the  life  and 
times  of  the  poet;  his  place,  and  the  position  of  the 
poem  in  the  development  of  English  literature;  the 
social  and  historical  features  of  the  times  and  persons 
that  the  poem  characterizes;  and  the  geography  of  the 
scenes  that  serve  as  a  background.  These  items  of 
information  may  be  supplied  in  two  ways:  by  informal 
but  carefully  prepared  talks,  in  which  the  instructor 
imparts  the  results  of  his  reading  on  the  subject;  and, 
by  gradual  and  more  detailed  work  in  the  way  of  re- 
ports prepared  by  members  of  the  class. 

As  general  guides,  may  be  mentioned:  Stopford 
Brooke's  Primer  of  English  Literature  (Appleton  & 
Co.,  N.  Y.),  Pancoast's  Representative  English  Litera- 
ture (Henry  Holt  &  Co.),  and  Thomas  Arnold's  Man- 
ual of  English  Literature,  American  edition  (Ginn  & 
Co.).  Such  works  as  Morley  &  Tyler's  Manual  of 
English  Literature  (Sheldon  &  Co.),Taine's  History  of 


32  English  in  Secondary  Schools. 

English  Literature  (Trans,  by  H.  Van  Laun,  London), 
Morley's  exhaustive  work,  English  Writers  (Cassell 
Publ.  Co.),  now  published  as  far  as  the  eighth  volume, 
and  the  English  Men  of  Letters  series  (Harpers), 
should  be  in  the  High  School  library  for  purposes  of 
reference.  Chronological  outlines  and  lists  of  collateral 
reading  will  often  be  of  value  in  orienting  the  teacher; 
such,  for  instance,  as  Emery's  Notes  on  English  Lit- 
erature, Smith's  Synopsis  of  English  and  American 
Literature  (Ginn  &  Co.),  and  Ryland's  Chronological 
Outlines  of  English  Literature  (Macmillan  &  Co.). 
But  it  must  be  remembered  that  text-book  informa- 
tion about  authors  or  masterpieces,  if  unaccompanied 
by  acquaintance  with  the  works  themselves,  is  worth 
little  to  the  learner.  It  is  better  that  the  teacher  should 
furnish,  in  the  informal  manner  already  suggested, 
such  preliminary  information  concerning  the  life  and 
times  of  the  poet  as  shall  serve  to  exhibit  his  relation 
to  preceding  contemporary  authors  and  stages  of  liter- 
ary development.  As  was  said,  above,  under  Sequence 
of  Studies,  a  wise  instructor  may  in  a  few  hours  convey 
to  his  class  an  outline  of  the  salient  facts,  features,  and 
periods  of  English  literature  sufficient  to  correlate  the 
authors  and  masterpieces  studied  in  the  course.  Only 
those  dates  should  be  given  that  are  of  evident  import; 
they  should  be  given  in  their  sequence,  and  should  find 
a  permanent  abode  in  the  memory  of  the  pupil. 

(b)  General  View:  Considerable  parts  of  the  mas- 
terpiece, or,  if  possible,  the  whole  masterpiece,  having 
been  assigned  for  study  at  home,  pupils  should,  in 
recitation,  reproduce  orally  the  preliminary  informa- 
tion described  under  (a),  and  outline  clearly  and  con- 
cisely the  argument  or  narrative  of  the  poem.  Each 
should,  then,  indicate  and  explain,  in  a  general  way, 


Suggestions  to  Teachers.  33 

the  passages  that  he  found  difficult  to  understand, 
referring  to  the  class  what  he  cannot  explain.  Finally, 
each  having  pointed  out  the  lines  and  stanzas  that  he 
most  likes,  the  passages  preferred  by  consensus  of 
opinion  (of  teacher  as  well  as  of  class)  should  be 
marked  to  be  committed  to  memory  and  recited  in 
class.  The  instructor  should  encourage  such  recitation, 
even  to  the  extent  of  making  it  optional  with  certain 
other  desirable  work. 

^  (c)  Analysis:  Next,  taking  up  the  poem  in  detail, 
the  class  must  examine  minutely  the  obsolete  and 
unusual  words,  phrases,  and  constructions,  and  ex- 
plain the  literary  and  historical  allusions,  noting  the 
poetic  charm  and  significance  of  each.  The  pupils 
should,  also,  be  required  to  elucidate  and  classify  the 
more  important  figures  of  speech,  and  to  comment 
upon  their  force,  clearness,  and  suitability. 

From  images,  the  transition  will  be  natural  to  the 
rhythmic  expression  of  the  imaginative  product. 
First,  the  rhythm  should  be  discussed,  its  nature,  swift 
or  slow,  heavy  or  light,  involved  or  simple,  monotonous 
or  varied;  secondly,  the  appropriateness  of  the  rhythm 
or  rhythms  to  the  movement  of  the  thought,  emotion, 
or  action;  thirdly,  the  style  and  technical  designation 
of  the  metre,  and  of  the  stanza ;  and  the  fitness  of  the 
metrical  form.  Many  lines  should  be  scanned  at 
home;  many  read  in  class  to  illustrate  irregularities 
or  peculiarities  of  verse,  and  to  cultivate  the  sense  of 
rhythm. 

It  is  wise  that  as  a  mere  matter  of  option  for  work 
out  of  school,  or  for  occasional  class-work,  pupils  be 
encouraged  to  prepare  verses  of  their  own  on  simple 
subjects,  in  the  metre  of  the  poem  under  consideration. 
The  feeling  of  rhythmic  sequence  and  the  appreciation 


34  English  in  Secondary  Schools. 

of  verse-forms   can   in   no   other  way,  so  surely,  be 
developed. 

For  the  instructor,  a  handy  but  elementary  guide  to 
English  versification  is  Tom  Hood's  Rhymester,  edited 
by  Arthur  Penn  (Appleton  &  Co.). 

See  also  Abbott  &  Seeley's  English  Lessons  for  Eng- 
lish People  (Boston,  pp.  145-221);  Corson's  Primer  of 
English  Verse  (Ginn  &  Co.),  and  Mayor,  Schipper,  and 
Guest  as  mentioned  in  §  13,  Macbeth  (Literary  Criti- 
cism, paragraph  3). 
/  The  pupils  familiar  with  both  thought  and  form  of 
the  masterpiece  may  occasionally  be  required  to  repro- 
duce in  their  own  language  the  passages  in  which  poetic 
diction  most  differs  from  that  of  prose.  This  exercise 
may  be  conducted  both  orally  and  by  means  of  care- 
fully written  paraphrases  of  the  original.  It  may,  at 
times,  consist  of  an  accurate  representation  of  the 
thought,  description,  or  narrative,  and,  at  times,  of  an 
expansion  of  the  poet's  ideas  according  to  the  best 
judgment  and  taste  of  the  pupil.  But  the  teacher 
must  always  remember  that  there  cannot  be  more  than 
one  sympathetic  expression  of  a  poetic  thought;  or,  in 
other  words,  that  each  shade  of  imaginative  thought, 
feeling,  and  action  has  its  appropriate  literary  garb. 
If  you  destroy  or  vary  the  garb,  you  destroy  or  vary 
the  impression  conveyed.  Paraphrasing,  therefore, 
should  be  employed  in  the  schools  not  as  an  insult 
to  the  poet's  intelligence,  formative  skill,  and  inspira- 
tion, but  as  a  necessary,  though  unfortunate,  conces- 
sion to  the  inexperience  of  the  pupil,  as  a  means  to  the 
removal  of  that  necessity,  and  as  an  exercise  in  trans- 
lation, which,  when  pupils  study  Greek  and  Latin,  has 
little  reason  for  existence.  In  general,  therefore,  the 
advanced  pupil  should  be  called  upon  to  paraphrase 


Suggestions  to  Teachers.  35 

only  when  he  does  not  grasp  the  thought  or  appreciate 
the  figure.  Rather  than  alter  the  poet's  language,  and 
mutilate  the  conception,  he  should  commit  the  language 
to  memory,  understanding  that  to  change  the  original 
is  a  crime  against  the  laws  of  art  and  of  common  sense. 

These  remarks  are  by  no  means  a  protest  against  the 
paraphrase  as  a  method  of  studying  grammar,  but  as 
a  method  of  studying  poetry.  In  the  composition-class 
the  practice  of  paraphrasing  prose  and  verse  is  a  sure 
and  invaluable  aid  in  enforcing  the  laws  of  syntax,  and 
in  fixing  the  interpretation  of  words.  In  the  class  that 
studies  poetry,  paraphrase  is  permissible  only  as  a 
means  of  exposition,  or  as  a  stimulus  to  invention. 

Parallel  with  this  labor  of  interpretation  goes  that  of 
criticism,  which  is  always  necessary  to  the  appreciation 
of  art.  There  are  three  attitudes  which  the  pupil 
should  not  be  permitted  to  assume  in  respect  of  classical 
poems:  first,  that  of  regarding  them  with  apathy; 
second,  that  of  reverencing  them  without  discrimina- : 
tion;  third,  that  of  attacking  them  in  a  supercilious 
manner,  and  with  a  carping  or  Philistine  spirit. 

Patient  deliberation  and  a  regard  for  authority  are 
requisite  to  criticism;  and  while  the  pupil  may  not  be 
sufficiently  mature  to  impugn  the  verdict  by  which  the 
poem  is  declared  a  classic,  he  may  still  be  called  upon 
to  consider  carefully  the  emotions  which  the  poem  has 
awakened  in  him,  and  to  inquire  into  the  manner  of 
their  awakening.  He  should,  in  other  words,  study 
the  means  by  which  the  poet  has  fried  to  translate  us 
for  a  season,  from  the  dust  of  this  world  to  the  liberal 
atmosphere  of  art.  He  should  ask  whether  the  poet 
has  reproduced  nature  with  fidelity,  has  planned 
probable  situations,  described  reasonable  characters, 
portrayed  true  emotions,  exercised  wisdom,  generosity, 


36  English  in  Secondary  Schools. 

and  justice  in  his  conception  of  conduct,  chosen  the 
fitting  imagery  and  the  inevitable  rhythm,  welded  the 
parts  into  a  flawless  unity,  and  transfigured  the  whole 
with  a  light  that  is  not  of  every  day  but  enduring. 

(d)  Review:  During  the  study  of  the  poem  the 
pupil  should  keep  a  note-book,  in  which  are  entered, 
under  appropriate  headings,  passages  illustrating 
qualities  of  style  and  of  thought,  as  well  as  informa- 
tion gathered  concerning  the  social,  historical,  and 
literary  relations  of  the  poem  and  the  poet.  This 
information  will  be  useful  in  the  final  characterization 
of  the  poem  and  in  composition  of  essays  on  special 
features  of  the  work.  After  several  poems  have  been 
read,  the  note-book  should  be  used  as  affording  ma- 
terials for  comparative  study  of  subjects,  methods, 
and  styles. 

Upon  the  instructor  devolves  the  task  of  weaving 
the  strands  of  investigation  into  something  of  a  web. 
He  may  well  conclude  the  study  of  each  poem  with  a 
brief  summary  of  its  qualities  from  his  point  of  view, 
a  comparison  with  other  poems  of  the  same  kind,  and 
a  statement  of  its  historical  and  literary  importance. 

C.  M.  G. 

§  8.  Poetry  (the  Drama):  Shakespeare's  Plays 
in  the  Schools. 

1.  Introductory.  These  plays  should  be  used  not  as 
text-books  but  as  works  of  art.  The  pupil  should  be 
led  to  understand  and  enjoy  them.  With  regard  to 
methods  of  reading,  discussion,  and  composition,  the 
suggestions  made  in  §  7  concerning  the  study  of  non- 
dramatic  poetry  may  safely  be  adopted  here.  The 
drama  should  be  read,  first,  in  natural  divisions  of 
considerable  length.     The  inquiry  into  plot,  character, 


Suggestions  to  Teachers.  37 

and  moral  sentiment  should  not  be  undertaken  before 
several  acts  are  in  the  minds  of  the  pupils.  The  study 
of  language,  of  figures,  and  of  diction  in  general  should 
be  deferred  until  the  second  reading. 

It  must  be  borne  in  mind  that  the  pupil  has  not  the 
knowledge  of  other  Shakespearian  plays,  or  of  the 
drama  in  general,  which  would  warrant  his  attempting 
broad  conclusions  concerning  dramatic  principles  and 
canons.  The  teacher,  however,  should  make  himself 
familiar  with  the  best  dramas  and  the  best  dramatic 
criticism.  He  should  make  a  study  of  the  dramatic 
works  not  only  of  Shakespeare  but  of  such  men  as 
Marlowe,  Beaumont,  and  Fletcher,  Ben  Jonson,  Mas- 
singer,  Sheridan,-  and  Goldsmith.  [Thayer's  Best 
Elizabethan  Plays  (Ginn  &  Co.\  Boston)  will  be  found 
useful.]  He  should  also  read  the  greater  Greek  drama- 
tists, using  Plumptre's  translations  of  iEschylus  and 
Sophocles,  and  the  translation  of  Euripides  (by  Wood- 
hull  and  others)  in  Morley's  Universal  Library  (Rout- 
ledge,  London),  in  case  the  originals  are  not  available.* 
Few  teachers  know  the  comic  as  exemplified  in  plays 
other  than  the  English.  An  acquaintance  with  Aris- 
tophanes, Plautus,  Terence,  and  Moliere,  even  through 
translations,  would  be  productive  of  salutary  results. 
But  whatever  information  the  teacher  may  acquire  and 
impart  he  should  be  solicitous  lest  the  pupil  adopt,  as 
definite  conclusions,  opinions  based  upon  unsure  prin- 
ciples or  insufficient  data. 

A  method  of  critical  study  applicable  not  to  school 
use,  but  to  more  advanced  and  independent  effort,  will 
be  found  in  g  12,  The  Critical  Study  of  Shakespeare.     It 

*A  list  of  other  translations  will  be  found  in  Classic  Myths  in 
Engl.  Lit.,  p.  408. 

3* 


38  English  in  Secondary  Schools. 

is  hoped  that  it  may  serve  as  a  stimulus  to  teachers 
who  desire  a  broader  knowledge  of  the  subject. 

2.  Special  Suggestions.  The  plan  of  study  sug- 
gested for  non- dramatic  poetry  will,  in  many  respects, 
be  available  in  the  study  of  Shakespeare;  but  in  addi- 
tion the  following  remarks  may  be  useful: 

(a)  The  pupil  must,  of  course,  acquaint  himself 
with  the  date  of  composition,  the  materials  (traditional 
and  imaginative),  and  the  historical  background  of 
the  play,  as  set  forth  in  his  text-book,  and  in  such 
books  of  reference  as  may  be  at  hand. 

(b)  He  should  be  encouraged  to  read  at  home  not 
only  the  play  in  question,  but  other  plays  of  Shake- 
speare; to  commit  to  memory  passages  from  the  plays, 
and  to  institute  comparisons  between  the  plays  in 
respect  of  plot  and  character. 

(c)  In  class  the  exercise  should  consist  largely  of 
reading  and  of  comment.  The  pupil  should  read  with 
simplicity  and  sympathy;  not  as  striving  for  effect,  but 
as  expressing  the  thought  while  preserving  its  rhyth- 
mic form.  The  teacher  should  encourage  informal 
questions,  and  give  such  explanation  as  may  be  neces- 
sary concerning  the  significant  in  poetic  expression, 
in  character,  and  in  action. 

(d)  The  appearance  that  the  principal  characters 
and  scenes  make  or  should  make  upon  the  stage,  and 
the  effect  that  on  the  stage,  and,  more  particularly,  in 
real  life,  the  incidents  of  the  play  would  have  upon 
the  emotions,  should  be  kept  before  the  mind  of  the 
reader. 

(e)  In  every  play  there  must  be  an  impulse  to  action, 
a  complication  of  individual  interest,  a  climax  of  the 
plot,  and  a  more  or  less  rapid  disentanglement  of  the 
complication  leading  either  to  a  catastrophe  or  a  happy 


Suggestions  to  Teachers.  39 

close.  Without  doubt,  the  pupil  should  understand 
and  apply  these  evident  principles  of  construction; 
but  the  teacher  should  beware  of  emphasizing  any 
elaborate  system  of  dramatic  technique  as  universally 
applicable  or  conclusive.  The  pupil  possesses  neither 
dramatic  information  sufficient  to  judge  of  such  sys- 
tems by  experience,  nor  philosophical  insight  to  appre- 
ciate them  a  priori.  This  remark  is,  however,  not,  by 
any  means,  intended  to  daunt  the  teacher  or  to  limit 
his  research.  [See  §  12,  B.  Technical  Criticism .]  His 
study  should  enable  him,  without  yielding  allegiance 
to  any  maker  of  critical  systems,  to  guide  his  pupils 
in  the  study  of  the  artistic  development  of  the  play, — 
of  the  interests  involved,  the  threads  of  action,  the 
grouping  of  characters,  the  successive  divisions  of  the 
plot,  the  instants  of  vital  importance  to  the  complica- 
tion, to  the  hero,  and  to  the  spectator. 

(/)  The  pupil  should  prepare  outlines  of  the  scenes 
and  acts,  showing  the  significance  of  each  incident  and 
its  relation  to  those  that  precede  and  follow. 

(g)  It  is  important  that  the  pupil  be  taught  to  esti- 
mate the  dramatic  evidence  under  consideration — to 
give  their  due  weight  to  actions,  speech,  and  hearsay 
before  coming  to  a  decision  upon  the  motives  and  the 
personality  of  any  character.  It  is,  however,  just  as 
important  that  the  pupil  be  not  permitted  to  indulge 
in  platitudes  or  to  wander  far  afield  in  search  of 
motives  that  the  author  could  not  have  dreamed  of 
attributing  to  his  dramatis  personse.  Under  judicious 
direction  the  study  of  characters  should  be  available 
for  exercises  in  composition. 

(h)  With  regard  to  the  outcome  of  the  plot,  two 
questions  only  need  be  put  to  the  pupil:  Is  it  inevit- 
able?    Is  it  artistic?     The  answer  to  the  former  will 


40  English  in  Secondary  Schools. 

demand  review  of  characters  and  events,  discrimina- 
tion between  concrete  right  and  concrete  wrong,  and  a 
decision  as  to  whether  justice  lay  in  mercy  or  in  retri- 
bution. The  answer  to  the  latter  will  involve  these 
inquiries:  Is  the  play  single  in  purpose;  probable  in 
circumstance;  cumulative  in  interest;  direct  in  move- 
ment? Does  it  awaken  healthy  emotions,  and  stimu- 
late noble  thought?  Does  it  leave  us  convinced  of 
eternal  fitness  in  the  outcome? 

(i)  The  pupil,  in  estimating  the  play  as  a  true, 
rounded,  and  artistic  presentation  of  a  sufficient  phase 
of  life,  must  be  led  to  distinguish  between  the  selfish 
and  ephemeral  sensation  that  the  experiences  of  every- 
day life  excite,  or  that  the  photographic  and  unideal- 
ized  drama  may  awaken,  and  the  elevated,  impersonal 
sympathy  that  a  noble  life,  or  the  transfiguration  of 
life  presented  by  the  great  drama,  is  capable  of  in- 
spiring. 

(j)  Attention  should  be  paid,  at  the  appropriate 
time  (generally  during  the  second  reading  of  the 
play),  to  the  study  of  words,  of  sentences,  of  rhetorical 
figures,  and  of  poetic  invention.  For  suggestions,  see 
§§  1-5,  on  Grammar,  Rhetoric,  and  Composition,  and 
§  7,  on  Non-Dramatic  Poetry. 

Texts:  Clarendon  Press,  Hudson's,  Rolf e's,  American 
Book  Co. 

Language  and  Versification:  Abbott's  Shakespearian 
Grammar  (Macmillan);  Abbott  &  Seeley's  English 
Lessons  for  English  People,  pp.  145-221,  Metre  (Boston: 
1872) ;  Fleay's  Shakespeare  Manual;  Schmidt's  Shake- 
speare Lexicon;  and  references  in  §  13,  under  Macbeth. 

General  References:  Dowden's  Shakespeare  Primer; 
Shakespeare,  His  Mind  and  Art  (Harpers,  N.  Y.); 
Hudson's    Shakespeare's    Life,    Art,    and    Character, 


Suggestions  to  \TeacTiers.OF  J  ■  41 

and  his  Essays  on  Education,  English  Studies,  and 
Shakespeare  (Ginn  &  Co.);  Moulton's  Shakespeare  as 
a  Dramatic  Artist  (Macmillan);  Ward's  English  Dra- 
matic Literature  (2  v.  Macmillan);  Collier's  English 
Dramatic  Poetry  (3  v.  London);  Taine's  Ehgftsh  Lit- 
erature; and  see  §  13,  References  on  Six  Shakespearian 

Tragedies. 

C.  M.  G. 

§  9.  Simple  Prose:  The  Essay.  Most  obviously 
within  the  field  of  this  study,  of  course,  are  the  strik- 
ing aspects  of  character  and  of  society  presented  in 
Addison's  Essays.  Intimately  connected  with  these 
is  the  author's  subtle  and  solvent  humor,  whose  quiet 
play  is  apt  at  first  to  escape  the  notice  of  readers  ac- 
customed only  to  humor  of  the  native  sort.  Another 
interest,  moreover,  attaches  to  these  papers  in  the  place 
they  hold  among  the  beginnings  of  English  periodical 
literature  and  in  the  long  development  of  the  essay. 
Collateral  reading  upon  these  points  might  include 
selections  from  Bacon,  De  Foe,  Pope,  Johnson,  and 
Macaulay,  as  well  as  from  more  recent  writers.  The 
best  text-book  available  for  this  study  is  probably 
Thurber's  Select  Essays  of  Addison  (Allyn  &  Bacon). 
Deighton's  Selections  from  the  Spectator  (Macmillan) 
contains  the  best  De  Coverley  papers  and  other  essays 
by  Addison  and  Steele.  If  a  very  cheap  text  must  be 
used,  Cassell's  Sir  Roger  De  Coverley  and  the  Spec- 
tator Club  is  preferable  to  the  very  meagre  edition  of 
Effingham,  Maynard  &  Co.  in  use  in  some  schools. 
This  last  has  not  scope  and  variety  enough  to  answer 
the  requirement  under  this  head.  Another  available 
edition  is  the  Roger  De  Coverley  Papers,  issued  by 
the   American   Book   Company,   which   contains   the 


42  English  in  Secondary  Schools. 

whole  series  (thirty- three  papers  by  Addison,  Steele, 
and  Budgell). 

Such  an  essay  as  Macaulay's  Warren  Hastings  is 
valuable  in  the  class-room,  not  only  as  an  introduc- 
tion to  the  more  modern  style  of  direct  and  emphatic 
narration  and  description,  but  as  a  stimulus  to  the 
study  of  character,  morals,  political  problems,  and 
history. 

C.  B.  B. 

§  10.    Prose:  The  Oration  and  Argument.    The 

chief  value  of  Burke's  Speeches — as  well  as  of  those 
others  that  may  be  found  in  the  volume  entitled  Ora- 
tions and  Arguments,  published  by  Allyn  &  Bacon 
(Boston:  1894) — lies,  first,  in  their  treatment  of  great 
and  far-reaching  questions  in  the  light  of  universal 
principles;  and,  second,  in  their  masterly  handling  of 
argument.  On  both  these  lines  they  should  furnish 
much-needed  stimulus  and  discipline  to  the  young 
American,  especially  because  they  deal  with  questions 
which  since  Burke's  day  have  been  decided  in  the  great 
tribunal  of  history,  and  those  decisions  are  now  incor- 
porate in  the  life  and  institutions  of  our  country.  The 
language  of  Burke  offers,  to  be  sure,  some  difficulty  in 
that  it  is  not  quite  remote  enough  from  our  own  to 
make  the  reader  constantly  aware  of  the  gap,  and 
therefore  on  the  alert  to  bridge  it  and  make  sure  of 
the  sense;  nor  yet  near  enough  to  make  such  effort 
unnecessary.  This  difficulty,  however,  is  not  wholly 
a  disadvantage,  in  that  it  gives  opportunity  for 
enforcing  careful  and  intelligent  reading,  and  for 
practice  in  the  important  art  of  making  the  context 

elucidate  doubtful  points. 

C.  B.  B. 


Suggestions  to  Teachers.  43 

§  11.    Prose:  The  Novel. 

1.  Purpose.  In  the  study  of  such  a  novel  as  the 
Newcomes,  or  Silas  Marner,  the  objects  to  be  kept  in 
view  are: 

(a)  Training  in  careful,  open-eyed  reading.  Length 
of  the  work  and  the  fact  that  it  is  a  story  appeal  to 
the  pupil's  tendency  to  slight  and  to  skip.  But  he 
must  hiow  this  novel  thoroughly. 

(b)  Acquaintance  with  a  world  of  life,  of  motive,  of 
action  outside  of  our  own  narrow  and  provincial  round. 

(c)  Arrest  of  attention  upon  matters  of  greater  im- 
port than  the  mere  a  story,"  in  order  that — as  in  noble 
tragedy — our  crude  interest  and  frothy  excitement  may 
be  "  purified  through  pity  and  fear." 

(d)  A  quickening  of  the  ethical  sense,  and  its  eman- 
cipation from  bondage  to  conventionality. 

These  points  are  roughly  arranged  in  an  ascending 
series;  the  earlier  terms  are  means  to  the  later  ones, 
and  these  last  are  the  more  vital — are  the  real  ends  of 
all  culture.  They  cannot  be  directly  imparted,  but 
they  must  not  be  neglected.  Another  way  of  putting 
the  matter  would  be  to  say:  Let  this  novel  be  so  treated 
and  handled  as  to  bring  to  these  pupils  some  revela- 
tion of  the  dignity  and  the  lasting  joy  of  such  a  work 
of  art,  and  of  the  gap  which  exists  between  finding  in 
it  such  pleasure  and  finding  in  it  only  pastime  for  an 
idle  hour. 

C.  B.  B. 

2.  Method.     The  following  suggestions  are  offered: 
(a)  The  class  should  treat  the  work  as  a  novel,  not 

as  a  text-book.  Pupils  should  be  encouraged  to  read 
and  finish  the  story  at  home  long  before  they  have 
completed  the  study  of  it  in  class.  Consequently  the 
teacher   should   assign  for   lessons  not  scraps  of   the 


44  English  in  Secondary  Schools. 

book  but  natural  divisions  of  the  story,  of  consider- 
able length. 

(b)  In  recitation,  the  class  should  be  prepared  to 
give  an  outline  of  the  part  of  the  novel  assigned  for  the 
day,  and  to  show  its  connection  with  what  has  pre- 
ceded; to  discuss  the  characters  as  they  are  brought 
upon  the  scene,  showing  how  they  affect  the  reader's 
conception  of  other  characters  and  of  the  plot  in 
general;  to  follow  the  development  of  each  character 
as  an  actual  personality,  and  to  estimate  the  influ- 
ence of  circumstances  upon  character;  to  weigh  care- 
fully, in  judging  motive,  impulse,  conduct,  and 
character,  not  only  the  professions  of  individuals,  but 
their  actions  and  the  opinions  of  their  fellows  in  the 
world  of  the  novel. 

(c)  The  class  should  study  the  novelist  in  connec- 
tion with  the  novel;  first,  his  life  and  character,  as 
found  elsewhere;  secondly,  his  personality,  as  revealed 
in  this  work — his  purpose  in  the  development  of  plot 
and  character,  his  insight  into  things,  his  wisdom  in 
the  choice  of  subjects,  his  accuracy  in  the  portrayal 
of  the  subjects  chosen,  and  his  emotional  manner 
(pathos,  sublimity,  humor,  irony,  etc.). 

(d).  The  class  should  observe  throughout  the  novel 
the  sequence  of  movement  and  the  unity  of  interests 
and  parts;  in  selected  passages  it  may  study  the  rhe- 
torical qualities  of  style. 

(e)  The  creations  of  the  novelist  ought  to  be  com- 
pared with  things  as  they  are  in  life,  as  they  might 
be.  or  as  they  should  be.  In  other  words,  the  novelist 
may  present  a  picture  that  is  realistic,  romantic,  or 
idealistic.  If  his  picture  combines  naturally  all  these 
characteristics,  it  is  the  highest  art;  if  it  possesses  none 
of  them,  it  is  not  worthy  to  exist. 


Suggestions  to  Teachers.  45 

(/)  The  pupils  must  understand  the  difference  (if 
there  be  any)  between  the  domestic,  social,  political, 
and  religious  conditions  of  the  story  and  those  that 
obtain  in  their  own  environment. 

(g)  The  recitation  should  cover  oral  and  written 
reports,  rapid  questioning,  informal  discussion,  and 
(in  proof  of  assertions  made  in  discussion  or  report) 
the  reading  aloud  of  passages  from  the  novel. 

(h)  The  written  reports  or  compositions  should  be 
prepared  at  home,  except  when  the  exercise  is  brief 
and  of  frequent  recurrence,  as  is  usual  in  paragraph- 
writing.  The  subjects  should  always  be  definite  in 
meaning  and  scope  and  within  the  pupil's  capability. 

(i)  Pupils  should  be  referred  by  the  teacher  to 
parallel  reading — historical,  biographical,  imagina- 
tive— and  encouraged  to  do  it  at  home. 

(j)  Finally,  as  primarily,  the  pupils  must  review 
the  novel  as  a  work  of  art  to  be  enjoyed  and  estimated 
in  its  entirety.  They  and  their  teacher  should  remem- 
ber that  the  purpose  of  art  is  not  to  teach  English  or 
anything  else,  but  to  edify  by  a  presentation  of  the 
truths  of  life  that,  appealing  to  the  emotions  and  the 
imagination,  shall  interest.  Indirectly,  and  as  an  after- 
effect, they  may  convince.  CMC 


III.     ADVANCED  STUDY  FOR  TEACHERS. 

§  12.  The  Critical  Study  of  Shakespeare.  (For 
teachers1  classes,  and  literary  clubs.) 

In  view  of  the  numerous  inquiries  made  of  the  writer 
concerning  the  best  methods  of  studying  Shakespeare's 
dramas  in  teachers'  classes  and  in  literary  clubs,  it 
has  seemed  wise  to  publish  here  a  few  suggestions,  not 
by  way  of  formulating  a  method,  but  by  way  of  present- 


46  English  in  Secondary  Schools. 

ing  to  the  student  a  classified  statement  of  what  may 
be  worthy  of  attention.  The  student  is  referred  also 
to  what  has .  been  said  above,  §  8,  on  Shakespeare's 
plays  in  the  schools. 

In  clubs  meeting  once  a  week  it  is  well  first  to  read 
the  play  aloud  by  roles  assigned  to  the  Various  mem- 
bers. The  next  two  or  more  sessions  may  be  devoted 
to  the  detailed  interpretation  of  difficult  passages  in 
the  text.  Then  will  follow  the  reading  of  papers  pre- 
pared by  members  of  the  club,  and  discussion  should 
accompany  these  papers. 

In  the  preparation  for  papers  and  discussions  the 
play  may  be  considered  from  the  historical,  the  tech- 
nical, and  the  literary  points  of  view.  Historical 
criticism  deals  with  the  external  conditions,  with  the 
materials  and  the  growth  of  the  literary  production; 
technical  criticism,  with  its  characteristic  as  a  type, 
(here,  as  a  dramatic  type:  a  plot  for  acting);  literary 
criticism,  with  the  theoretic,  moral,  and  emotive  quali- 
ties which  give  the  work  an  abiding  artistic  value. 
^  A.  Historical  Criticism.  In  this  division  fall  the 
inquiry  into  the  sources  of  the  play,  the  determination 
of  dates  of  composition  and  publication,  and  the  study 
of  social  and  literary  background.  With  regard  to 
Sources,  such  information  as  the  best  texts  and  com- 
mentaries afford  (e.  g.  Furness'  Variorum)  should  be 
carefully  sifted.  Notes  should  also  be  made  of  the 
degree  and  the  manner  in  which  the  dramatic  plot  and 
its  characters  diverge  from  their  originals.  Material 
will  thus,  be  collected  for  a  study  of  the  author's  cre- 
ative power.  The  determination  of  Dates  is,  of  course, 
the  first  step  toward  an  estimation  of  the  author's 
literary  development;  and  in  studying  this  develop- 
ment we  study  the  history  of  dramatic  art  and  of 


Suggestions  to  Teachers.  47 

national  thought.  For  no  play  of  Shakespeare  can  be 
examined  alone;  it  must  be  appreciated  in  the  sequence 
of  his  plays,  and  in  relation  to  the  works  of  contem- 
porary dramatists.  Concerning  the  Background  of  the 
play,  two  matters  demand  consideration:  the  environ- 
ment of  the  dramatis  personam,  and  the  circumstances 
of  the  author.  In  each  case,  geographic,  historical, 
personal,  and  social  conditions  must  be  ascertained. 
No  reasonable  work  in  dramatic  or  literary  criticism 
can  be  achieved  unless  the  student  possess  a  vivid 
mental  picture  of  the  place,  the  setting,  and  the  atmos- 
phere of  the  dramatic  action,  and  as  clear  an  under- 
standing of  the  conditions,  inherited,  adventitious,  or 
acquired,  of  the  poet. 

Since  verification  of  the  text  demands  advanced 
critical  training  and  first-class  libraries,  the  general 
reader  would  better  trust  for  his  Textual  Criticism  to 
the  authority  of  the  best  editors. 

Bibliography.  The  most  available  and  trustworthy 
authorities,  beside  the  schoo]  editions  mentioned  at  the 
end  of  §  8,  are  the  general  editions  of  Richard  Grant 
White,  Hudson  (Harvard  ed.),  Clarke,  Knight,  Malone, 
Henry  Irving,  the  Leopold  Shakespeare,  and  the  Bank- 
side  edition.  Moulton's  Shakespeare  as  a  Dramatic 
Artist  (Chaps.  I,  II),  Guizot's  Shakespeare  and  his 
Times,  Halliwell-Phillips'  Outlines  of  the  Life  of  Shake- 
speare, and  his  Memoranda,  Hazlitt's  Shakespeare 
Library,  Furness'  Variorum,  and  Fleay,  Abbott,  Ward, 
Dowden,  and  Collier,  as  mentioned  at  the  end  of  §  8, 
will  be  useful.  See  also  Historical  Criticism  under 
Macbeth,  Richard  III,  Hamlet,  etc.,  in  §  13,  References 
on  Six  Shakespearian  Tragedies. 

B.  Technical  Criticism.  Here  should  be  considered 
the  technique  of  the  plot,  its  histrionic  qualities,  and 


48  English  in  Secondary  Schools. 

its  stage  history.  Since  it  is  wise  to  profit  by  experi- 
ence, the  Stage  History  should  be  studied  first.  Actors 
have  given  us  no  insignificant  clue  to  the  criticism  of 
plot  in  their  interpretations  of  dramatic  characters, 
their  methods  of  stage-setting,  and  their  conduct  of 
scenes.  Their  practice  makes  the  dramatis  personse 
more  human  and  the  dramatic  situations  more  real. 
Important  works  on  the  traditions  of  the  stage  are 
Irving's  Shakespeare,  Furness'  Variorum,  Doran's 
Annals  of  the  Play  (2  v.  N.  Y.:  1880),  Dutton  Cook's 
Book  of  the  Play,  Genest's  English  Stage  from  the 
Restoration  to  1830  (10  v.  Lond.:  1832),  Betterton's 
History  of  the  Stage  (Lond.:  1741),  Gait's  Lives  of 
the  Actors  (2  v.  Lond.:  1831),  Baker's  English  Actors 
(2  v.  Lond.:  1879),  and  his  London  Stage  (2  v.  Lond.: 
1889.) 

In  estimating  the  Histrionic  Qualities  of  the  play — 
its  fitness  for  stage-presentation — attention  must  be 
paid,  not  only  to  the  personal  "  note  "  of  each  character, 
but  to  the  grouping  of  characters;  and  dramatic  means 
and  effects  must  be  tested  by  probability.  For  though 
not  necessarily  possible,  a  plot  must  be  probable: 
the  conception  must  be  imaginatively  reasonable, 
the  purpose  appreciable,  the  artistic  assumptions  of 
person,  place,  and  period  consistent,  the  premises 
ordered,  the  conclusion  logical.  If  such  probability 
of  means  be  observed,  the  emotional  eflects  will  be 
both  natural  and  ideal;  and  on  such  emotional  effects 
the  histrionic  quality  of  the  play  depends.  A  vivid 
realization  of  the  play  as  acted,  or  as  it  should  be 
acted,  assists  materially  in  the  study  of  the  impulses, 
the  conflicting  motives,  and  interests  that  necessitate 
the  action  of  the  drama,  and  in  the  investigation  of 
plot-construction:  the  growth  of  the  complication,  the 


Suggestions  to  Teachers.  49 

knotting  of  the  entanglement,  the  unraveling  of  the 
dramatic  strands.  On  Dramatic  Technique  or  Plot- 
Construction  many  treatises  have  been  written,  some 
by  philosophers  like  Aristotle,  some  by  playwrights  like 
Freytag,  some  by  professional  critics.  While  acquaint- 
ing himself  with  the  more  important  theories,  the  stu- 
dent should  beware  of  adopting  one  scheme  as  a  key  to 
every  lock.  Some  elaborate  systems  are  constructed 
with  reference  to  but  one  or  two  kinds  of  drama,  and 
are  inapplicable  to  other  kinds.  Aristotle's  analysis  of 
plot,  based  upon  the  study  of  the  Greek  tragic  drama- 
tists (Poetics, Wharton's  transl.,  Parker  &  Co.,  London), 
is  the  simplest,  and  with  reference  to  it  all  others  of 
importance  have  been  constructed.  He  divides  the 
tragedy  into  its  natural  parts,  Complication  and  Solu- 
tion. The  Complication  extends  from  the  beginning  of 
the  action  to  the  Revolution  (or  Climax) — a  reverse  of 
fortune,  or  the  discovery  of  a  secret,  or  both.  The  Solu- 
tion extends  from  the  Revolution  to  the  Catastrophe,  or 
close,  of  the  play.  Freytag  (Die  Technik  des  Dramas, 
Leipzig:  1881)  finds  in  the  tragedy  three  important 
Moments  or  Crises,  and  five  Stages  of  action  or  develop- 
ment. The  introductory  scenes  of  the  play  constitute 
the  first  stage  of  action.  They  prepare  the  audience 
for  the  first  crisis,  the  Moment  of  Impulse  or  Excita- 
tion, in  which  the  purpose  of  the  story,  the  nature  of 
the  coming  conflict,  is  made  manifest  in  speech  or  deed. 
The  second  stage  is  one  of  thickening  plot  and  cumula- 
tive interest.  It  is  the  Complication.  It  includes  an 
ascending  series  of  situations,  the  last  of  which  conducts 
the  action  to  its  Climax.  Thus,  the  Climax  of  the  play 
is,  in  a  certain  sense,  the  conclusion  of  the  Complica- 
tion, but  it  is  also  preparatory  to  the  Solution,  and  is 
therefore  a  stage  in  itself — the  third  stage  of  action. 


50  English  in  Secondary  Schools. 

It  may  consist  of  one  scene  or  of  several  scenes.  It  con- 
ducts the  Complication  through  the  period  of  keenest 
excitement  to  the  second  crisis  of  the  play.  During 
the  Climax  one  party  or  individual  has  triumphed; 
but  the  action  is  not  complete,  the  Complication  is  still 
unsolved.  In  the  second  crisis  the  element  of  Solution 
is  introduced.  This  crisis  is  therefore  called  the  Tragic 
Moment,  and  it  consists  of  some  misstep  of  the  victors 
or  some  decisive  "  push  "  of  the  vanquished.  The  way 
is  now  prepared  for  the  Solution — the  fourth  stage  of 
the  action.  But  since  the  rapid  and  hopeless  fall  of 
the  hero  would  lack  interest,  as  savoring  too  much  of 
a  foregone  conclusion,  there  is  generally  held  out  a 
hope  of  his  salvation,  if  not  of  his  renewed  success. 
This  hope  is,  however,  blasted  in  the  Moment  of  Final 
Suspense,  which  is  the  third  crisis  of  the  play.  From 
that  moment  to  the  close  of  the  action  is  the  fifth  stage 
of  action,  the  Catastrophe. 

Freytag's  analysis  of  technique  does  not  apply,  with- 
out modification,  to  comedy,  for  reasons  which  will  be 
evident  to  the  reader. 

This  outline  of  Freytag's  scheme  of  analysis  is  given 
because  no  translation  of  his  Technik  des  Dramas  has 
yet  been  published.  The  scheme  is  but  a  small  part 
of  his  essay,  and  by  no  means  the  only  suggestive 
part.  Examples  of  the  various  stages  and  crises  are 
not  given,  because  the  reader  may  find  a  somewhat 
similar  method  of  analysis,  with  copious  illustrations, 
in  Hennequin's  Art  of  Play- Writing  (Houghton,  Mif- 
flin &  Co.,  Boston:  1890),  Chaps.  XVII-XXI.  See  also, 
for  general  theory,  Price's  Technique  of  the  Drama 
(Brentano's,  N.  Y.:  1892). 

Moulton,  in  his  Shakespeare  as  a  Dramatic  Artist 
(Macmillan  &  Co.,  N.  Y.:  1893),  deals  cleverly  with 


Suggestions  to  Teachers.  51 

Mechanical  Construction  and  Plot.  The  latter  he 
discusses  under  the  heads  of  Single  Action,  Complex 
Action,  Motive  Form,  and  Motive  Force.  For  a  clear 
idea  of  his  method  of  criticism  (principally  inductive), 
reference  should  be  made  to  Chaps.  Ill,  V-XI,  XIX, 
XX,  and  the  Appendix  (Technical  Analysis  of  Plots). 
Snider  Js  System  of  the  Shakespearian  Drama  (Trage- 
dies, Comedies,  Histories,  3  v.  St.  Louis)  develops  in 
a  suggestive,  but  too  exclusively  a  priori,  manner  the 
subject  of  Threads,  Groups,  and  Movements.  The 
work  is  stronger  in  ethical  than  in  technical  criticism. 
Ransome's  Short  Studies  of  Shakespeare's  Plots  (Mac- 
millan  &  Co.)  may  also  be  consulted. 

It  will  be  evident  that,  in  the  study  of  dramatic 
plot,  more  than  analysis  of  mechanical  construction 
is  involved.  For  the  plot,  by  means  of  action,  dis- 
plays humanity.  To  determine  instants  of  vital  im- 
portance to  the  complication  and  solution,  to  the  hero, 
and  to  the  audience,  to  appreciate  the  value  of  rapid 
or  of  suspended  action,  and  the  histrionic  quality  of 
dramatic  effects,  the  student  must  penetrate  the  form 
of  the  action.  He  must  inquire  into  the  principles 
involved;  must  decipher  character  in  its  complexity 
and  its  growth;  must  recognize  persons  as  members  of 
dramatic  groups,  and  must  unravel  the  threads  of  in- 
terest and  action  pursued  by  these  characters  and 
groups.  In  other  words,  he  must  study  plot  in  its 
sources. 

,/  Plot  is  the  synthesis  of  Action;  and  Action  is  in 
turn  dependent  upon  Character  and  Impulse.  Not 
upon  character  fashioned  by  precedent  alone.  Char- 
acter is  the  "accent"  of  the  individual  as  determined 
by  previous  conduct.  In  ordinary  circumstances,  the 
accent  or  "note"  of  the  individual  may  be  surmised 


52  English  in  Secondary  Schools. 

by  those  who  know  him;  it  will  be  the  resultant  of  his 
individuality  and  his  conduct  as  they  have  known 
them.  But  if  circumstances  were  always  ordinary, 
character  would  never  prompt  a  significant  action. 
To  a  significant  action  a  new  influence  is  necessary. 
This  is  both  furnished  and  guided  by  Impulse.  It  is 
furnished  by  an  impulse  (born  of  emergency)  which, 
working  in  an  unprecedented  manner  upon  the  desires 
and  judgment  of  the  individual,  determines  a  motive 
of  action,  a  step  of  self-realization.  This  motive, 
adopted  by  the  individual,  is  now  his  Ideal,  and  urged 
or  guided  by  impulse,  passes  into  deed.  So  from  the 
impact  of  impulse  upon  character  (as  it  was)  an 
action  springs  which  may  confirm,  modify,  or  subvert 
previous  principles  of  conduct. 

Now,  it  is  just  such  action;  such  transition  of  im- 
pulse by  way  of  conduct  into  more  mature  character, 
that  the  dramatist  selects  and  builds  with  similar 
significant  actions  into  a  plot.  Consequently,  not  only 
in  its  sequence,  but  in  its  factors,  so  far  as  they  con- 
tribute directly  to  the  construction  of  the  story,  does 
action  fall  within  the  realm  of  technical  criticism.  It 
must,  however,  be  remembered  that  Character  and 
Impulse  are  not  here  subjects  of  study  coordinate  with 
dramatic  Action,  but  subordinate  to  it.  The  detailed 
and  independent  investigation  of  personality,  not  for 
dramatic  purposes,  but  for  its  own  sake,  the  analysis 
of  character  into  its  primary  impulses,  passions,  judg- 
ments, and  motives,  in  their  psychological  aspect,  falls 
under  the  head  of  Literary  Criticism,  in  the  manner 
and  to  the  degree  there  set  forth. 

C.  Literary  Criticism.  As  Technical  Criticism  con- 
siders the  characteristic  of  the  masterpiece  as  a  drama: 
a  plot  by  means  of  action,  so  Literary  Criticism  con- 


Suggestions  to  Teachers.  53 

siders  its  characteristic  as  a  work  of  art:  the  appropriate 
expression  of  the  significant  in  humanity.  Three  sub- 
divisions of  the  question  call,  therefore,  for  attention: 
the  Ethical,  the  Psychological,  and  the  ^Esthetic. 

1 .  Ethical  Criticism  seeks  to  discover  the  vital  forces, 
or  principles,  that  manifest  themselves  in  the  person- 
alities and  institutions  presented  by  the  play.  These 
forces  are  positive  or  negative:  good  or  evil,  right  or 
wrong,  unselfish  or  vulturous,  permanent  or  ephemeral. 
They  underlie  character  and  impulse  in  human  experi- 
ence. They  are,  consequently,  manifest  in  the  various 
characters  and  groups  of  the  drama;  and  they  are 
implied  in  the  institutions  of  property,  of  the  family, 
of  society,  of  the  church,  or  of  the  state  with  which  the 
characters  and  groups  of  characters  may  be  identified 
by  duty,  interest,  or  the  mere  momentum  of  habit. 
The  clash  of  institution  with  institution,  or,  inside  the 
institution,  of  interest  with  interest,  may  array  man 
against  man.  The  clash  of  institution  with  institu- 
tion may  take  place  in  the  heart  of  the  person:  it 
may  arouse  conflicting  interests,  suggest  contradictory 
ideals,  and  enlist  the  person  against  himself.  These 
forces  coming  thus  into  collision,  precipitate  the  action 
of  the  plot.  Ethical  Criticism  considers  the  course  and 
outcome  of  this  conflict,  and  passes  judgment  upon  the 
wisdom  and  the  honesty  with  which  the  playwright 
has  ordered  the  destiny  of  the  ethical  encounter. 

So  far  these  remarks  are  more  particularly  appro- 
priate to  the  conditions  of  tragedy.  Since,  however, 
many  plays  do  not,  like  Julius  Caesar  and  Macbeth, 
present  a  duel  a  Voutrance  between  institutions,  indi- 
viduals, or  interests,  it  will  be  wise  for  the  student  to 
consider,  here,  the  various  subdivisions  of  which  the 
drama  is  capable. 
4 


54  English  in  Secondary  Schools. 

'  Subdivisions  of  the  Drama:  The  broadest  division  of 
the  drama  is  into  Nor  ma  I  and  Abnormal.  The  Normal 
Drama  treats  of  life  as  embodying  positive  principles 
and  active  forces;  in  short,  as  realizing  a  purpose;  the 
Abnormal  Drama  looks  on  life  as  unprincipled,  un- 
regulated, or  purposeless.  The  former  subdivides  itself 
into  the  Drama  of  Tragic  and  the  Drama  of  Poetic 
Justice. 

Tragic  justice  recognizes  nothing  but  uncompromis- 
ing Ideas.  They  are  the  inspiration  of  character  and 
the  birth  of  impulse;  they,  in  the  emergency,  compel 
to  action;  they  pass  as  right  and  wrong  into  conduct; 
they  precipitate  the  conflict  of  heroes,  and  they  perse- 
vere till  by  death,  physical  or  moral,  the  exponent  of 
the  false  idea  is  quelled.  Death,  sometimes,  too,  befalls 
the  protagonist  of  the  right,  but  defeat  does  not  befall 
the  right  for  which  he  has  done  battle.  Such  is  the 
justice  that  rules  the  realm  of  Tragedy.  In  such  a 
realm  Macbeth  moves,  and  Richard  III,  and  Coriolanus. 

Poetic  justice,  on  the  other  hand,  while  still  it  recog- 
nizes ideas  as  motive  powers  of  life,  does  not  regard 
them  as  uncompromising.  It  adjusts  idea  to  idea,  idea 
to  situation,. or  situation  to  situation.  In  any  case  the 
forces  in  conflict  are  not  irreconcilable;  in  every  case 
the  individuals  impelled  by  ideas  are  mercifully  dealt 
with.  To  the  good  falls  good,  to  the  evil,  evil;  but  the 
.punishment  is  tempered  by  mercy.  On  the  stage  of 
poetic  justice  may  be  found  the  Serious  Play,  the 
Romantic  Play,  the  Play  of  Caprice.  In  the  Serious 
Play,  such  as  the  Merchant  of  Venice,  the  ideas  ani- 
mating the  central  characters  are  still  vital,  and  the 
interest  of  the  spectator  is  enlisted  fully  as  much  for 
the  success  of  this  or  that  idea  or  principle,  as  for  the 
fortune  of  the  individual  identified  therewith.     But 


Suggestions  to  Teachers.  55 

though  the  alarum  is  sounded,  though  parties  are  ranged 
for  conflict,  and  the  outcome  should  be  fatal, — though, 
even,  injustice  or  inhumanity  seem  to  triumph, — un- 
compromising individuals  are  thwarted  of  their  pur- 
poses, disarmed  in  the  nick  of  time:  the  catastrophe, 
in  short,  is  averted  by  mediation.  Right  triumphs, 
wrong  is  rebuked;  the  virtuous  are  rewarded,  the 
vicious  punished  and  set  in  the  way  of  repentance.  In 
the  Romantic  Play,  serious  ideas  still  prevail,  but  it  is 
no  longer  for  an  idea  or  principle,  but  for  the  fortune  of 
a  hero  or  a  heroine,  that  interest  is  claimed.  This  is  a 
"  smooth  tale,  generally  of  love."  It  may  avail  itself  of 
a  villain,  but  he  is  artfully  and  opportunely  eliminated; 
and  the  deserving  lovers  reap  the  fruition  of  their 
patience.  Such  a  play  is  the  Tempest.  In  the  Play  of 
Caprice,  ideas  or  principles  may  exist,  but  they  consort 
with  whims,  and  they  sometimes  become  whimsical 
themselves.  The  Play  of  Caprice  is  both  humorous  and 
witty;  its  truest  and  most  genial  humor  is  displayed 
in  the  comedy  of  character;  its  most  elementary  wit  in 
the  comedy  of  situation;  a  less  genial  humor  and  a 
more  elegant  wit  are  combined  in  the  comedy  of  man- 
ners. Of  course,  there  are  characters  worthy  of  remark 
in  the  comedy  of  manners,  and  there  are  manners 
worthy  of  consideration  in  the  comedy  of  situation; 
but  each  sort  is  here  designated  by  the  element  that 
is  in  the  preponderance.  As  You  Like  It  is  a  comedy 
of  character;  The  School  for  Scandal,  of  manners;  The 
Comedy  of  Errors,  of  situation. 

Of  the  Abnormal  Drama  little  need  here  be  said.  It 
is  negative  in  thought,  morbid  in  feeling,  or  chaotic  in 
action.  It  occupies  the  realm  of  perversion,  exaggera- 
tion, and  nonsense:  a  realm  in  which  the  aims  of  life 
are  parodied,  the  emotions  distorted,  or  the  relations 


56  English  in  Secondary  Schools. 

of  things  ignored.  Its  classes  are,  accordingly,  the 
Burlesque,  the  Melodrama,  and  the  Farce.  The  Bur- 
lesque may  be  satirical  or  sensational.  In  either  case 
it  works  by  negative  means;  but,  in  the  former,  it  has 
a  serious  purpose;  in  the  latter,  it  would  merely  pro- 
voke animal  laughter.  The  satirical  burlesque  is  the 
only  excusable  kind  of  abnormal  drama.  For  even 
though  its  diadactic  aim  overpass  the  bound  of  art, 
still  it  has  a  value.  By  inflating  the  trivial  or  ex- 
hausting the  pretentious  it  ridicules  and  sometimes 
remedies  abuses,  literary,  social,  and  political.  Such 
satirical  dramas  are  Beaumont  &  Fletcher's  Knight  of 
the  Burning  Pestle,  Middleton's  Game  of  Chess,  Buck- 
ingham's Rehearsal,  and  Sheridan's  Critic.  But  in 
Shakespeare  we  find  no  satirical  drama — merely  an 
occasional  trace  of  the  burlesque  in  character. 

The  other  kinds  of  the  abnormal  drama  are  beneath 
consideration.  In  so  far  as  they  lack  idea,  form,  or 
perspective,  they  may  be  called  negative.  The  sensa- 
tional burlesque  indulges  in  purposeless  and  inartistic 
caricature.  The  Melodrama  may  intend  to  inculcate 
moral  principles,  but  relying,  as  it  does,  upon  exag- 
gerated situations,  irrational  pathos,  and  vacant  sen- 
sations, it  is  distorted  in  form  and  ephemeral  in  result. 
The  Farce  (not  the  short  comedy,  which  may  be 
rational  and  artistic)  is  stuffed  with  sporadic  situa- 
tions, improbable  whims,  and  inconsistent  compli- 
cations. The  abnormal,  or  negative,  drama  is  the 
reductio  ad  absurdum  of  life. 

For  Ethical  Criticism  of  Shakespeare's  dramas,  see 
Coleridge,  Schlegel,  Ulrici,  Gervinus,  Snider,  and  others, 
as  indicated  in  §  13,  References  on  Six  Shakespearian 
Tragedies. 

2.  Psychological  Criticism  considers  the  individuals 


Suggestions  to  Teachers.  57 

in  whom  these  ethical  forces  are  manifest.  That  is  to 
say,  it  considers  ethical  forces  not  in  the  abstract,  but 
in  the  concrete,  after  they  have  passed  through  human 
impulse  and  desire  into  motive  or  ideal,  conduct  and 
character.  It  is  the  investigation  of  human  personality 
as  the  resultant  of  a  universal  purpose  and  an  indi- 
vidual will.  It  has,  therefore,  a  double  outlook:  on 
the  one  hand,  toward  the  ethical  purpose  or  principle  of 
action;  on  the  other,  toward  the  character  in  and  after 
action.  It  judges  of  the  action  in  the  light  of  the 
principle,  and  of  the  character  in  the  light  of  the 
action.  Personality  it  studies  as  organic;  character 
as  dynamic.  It  determines  personality  in  the  out- 
come; it  investigates  character  in  the  complexity  of 
its  factors,  of  its  growth,  and  of  its  relation  to  circum- 
stances, personal  and  impersonal. 

In  analysis  of  motive  and  character-study  the  Ger- 
mans have  excelled — Gervinus  (Shakespeare's  Com- 
mentaries), Schlegel  (Dramatic  Literature),  and  Ulrici 
(Shakespeare's  Dramatic  Art),  in  particular.  Some 
of  the  best  English  critics  of  the  Shakespearian  char- 
acters are  Coleridge  (Lectures  on  Shakespeare  and 
other  Dramatists);  Dowden  (Shakespeare,  His  Mind 
and  Art),  Harpers,  N.  Y.;  Hudson's  Shakespeare's 
Life,  Art,  and  Character,  2  v.,  Boston;  Mrs.  Jameson's 
Characteristics  of  Shakespeare's  Women;  Hazlitt's 
Characters  of   Shakespeare's  Plays.     See  also  §  13. 

3.  ^Esthetic  Criticism  deals  with  the  form  in  which 
the  dramatist  conveys  his  thought,  and  with  the  effect 
produced  thereby  upon  the  imagination  and  the  emo- 
tions of  the  reader  or  spectator.  It  considers  the 
aesthetic  values  of  the  work  of  art — the  tragic  and  the 
comic,  the  pathetic,  sublime,  and  beautiful;  and  the 
elements  that  go  to  produce  these  results  in  diverse 


58  English  in  Secondary  Schools. 

situations,  characters,  and  incidents.  It  considers  the 
diction,  the  imagery,  the  prose,  and  the  verse  of  the 
masterpiece,  and  the  suitableness  of  each  to  the  pur- 
pose of  the  author.  It  considers  the  unity  of  the 
drama,  and  of  each  part  as  a  necessary  component. 
It  distinguishes  between  the  selfish  sensation  excited 
by  the  experiences  of  everyday  life,  or  awakened  by 
the  photographic  and  unidealized  drama,  and  the 
elevated  sympathy  inspired  by  a  noble  transfiguration 
of  life.  It  asks  whether  the  drama  is  a  true,  rounded 
and  artistic  presentation  of  a  sufficient  phase  of  human 
action. 

On  the  Tragic  and  the  Comic,  see  Professor  C.  C.  Ever- 
ett's Poetry,  Comedy,  and  Duty  (Boston:  1888)-;  on 
these  and  other  ^Esthetic  values,  see  Schopenhauer's 
World  as  Will  and  as  Idea  (transl.  Seth  and  Haldane, 
3  v.  Lond.:  1883),  Kedney's  Hegel's  ^Esthetics,  and 
other  references  in  Gayley  &  Scott's  Guide  to  the 
Literature  of  ^Esthetics  (Berkeley:  1890).  On  M$- 
thetic  Criticism,  see  §  13,  under  Literary  Criticism, 
and  on  Versification,  see  §  13,  Macbeth,  under  Literary 

Criticism. 

C.  M.  G. 

§  13.  References  on  Six  Shakespearian  Trage- 
dies. 

I. 

MACBETH. 

A.     Historical  Criticism. 

Date,  Text,  Sources. — Holinshed's  Chronicle.  Clar- 
endon Press  Series  (Clark  and  Wright),  Macbeth. 
Editions  of  R.  G.  White,  Knight,  and  Clarke.  Fur- 
ness,   Variorum,  2:352-380.     Rolfe,  Macbeth,  13-15. 


Suggestions  to  Teachers.  59 

Hudson,  Shakespeare,  17:  5-10.  Fleay,  Anglia,  7: 128 
(Davenant's  Macbeth).  Snider,  Shakespearian  Drama, 
1:210-219.  Gervinus,  Shakespeare's  Commentaries, 
583.     Hazlitt,  Shakespeare's  Library,  vol.  2. 

B.     Technical  Criticism. 

Plot,  Histrionic  Qualities,  Stage  History. — Freytag, 
Die  Technik  des  Dramas.  Moulton  (see  below).  Sni- 
der (see  below).  Ransome,  Shakespeare's  Plots.  The 
Henry  Irving  ed.  of  S.,  vol.  5.  For  Stage  History,  see 
authorities  under  Othello,  etc. 

C.    Literary  Criticism. 

Ethical,  Psychological,  JEsthetic. — Hazlitt,  Characters 
of  Shakespeare's  Plays,  17.  Mrs.  Jameson,  Character- 
istics of  Women  (American  edition),  443.  Furness, 
Macbeth.  George  Fletcher,  Studies  of  Shakespeare, 
109.  Joseph  Hunter,  New  Illustrations  of  the  Life, 
Studies,  and  Writings  of  Shakespeare,  2: 160.  Buck- 
nill,  The  Mad  Folk  of  Shakespeare,  7,  10,  44.  Ger- 
vinus (translated  by  Mr.  Furness),  Shakespeare's  Com- 
mentaries. Edward  Dowden,  Shakespeare;  a  Critical 
Study  of  his  Mind  and  Art,  244.  Coleridge,  Lectures 
on  Shakespeare,  237.  Snider,  Shakespearian  Drama, 
219-285.  Moulton,  Shakespeare  as  a  Dramatic 
Artist,  125-168.  DeQuincey,  Miscellaneous  Essays 
(The  Knocking  at  the  Gate  in  Macbeth).  Gayley, 
Shahespeariana,  Jan.  1884  (Macbeth).  John  Weiss, 
Wit  and  Humor  of  Shakespeare,  363-395;  also  (Lady 
Macbeth)  400-428.  Lamb,  Works,  4:78.  Schlegel, 
Dramatic  Literature.  Ulrici,  Shakespeare's  Dramatic 
Art;  Elze's  Notes  on  Elizabethan  Dramatists.  Cor- 
son, Introduction  to  Shakespeare  (The  Witch  Agency 
in  Macbeth  and  Lady  Macbeth's  Relations  to  Macbeth). 


60  English  in  Secondary  Schools, 

Macmillan's  Magazine,  Feb.,  1868  (Motive  in  Mac- 
beth). Nineteenth  Century,  1877  (The  Third  Mur- 
derer in  Macbeth).     The  Century,  Nov.,  1881. 

On  Shakespeare's  Versification  and  Language,  in 
this  and  in  other  plays,  see  J.  B.  Mayor,  On  English 
Metres;  Schipper,  Englische  Metrik;  F.  G.  Fleay, 
Shakespeare  Manual;  E.  A.  Abbott,  A  Shakespeare 
Grammar;  C.  L.  Craik,  The  English  of  Shakespeare; 
W.  S.  Walker,  Shakespeare's  Versification;  Guest's 
History  of  English  Rhythms  (2  vols.  Ed.  by  Skeat. 
Lond.,  1882).  See  also,  General  Note  after  refer- 
ences on  Coriolanus,  below. 

II. 

KING  RICHARD  III. 

A.  Historical  Criticism. 

Date,  Text,  Sources. — Editions:  Clarendon  Press, 
White,  Furness,  Rolfe,  Hudson,  Clarke,  etc.  Sir 
Thomas  More's  Life  of  Richard  III;  Holinshed's 
Chronicle.  Hazlitt,  Shakespeare's  Library,  5:  43-220. 
Gervinus,  259-263.  Tegg,  Shakespeare  and  His  Con- 
temporaries, 49-52.  Guizot,  Shakespeare  and  His 
Time,  336.  Hudson,  Shakespeare,  His  Life,  Art,  and 
Characters,  2: 134-143.     Lloyd,  Essays,  285-292. 

B.  Technical  Criticism. 

Plot,  Histrionic  Qualities,  Stage  History. — Lamb's 
Works,  4:92-93  (On  the  Tragedies  of  S.).  Henry 
Irving  ed.,  3:10-11,  and  notes.  Moulton,  105-124. 
Snider  (see  below).  Freytag,  Die  Technik,  103,  105. 
Dutton  Cook,  Nights  at  the  Play,  34-36,  38,  326-328. 
Murdoch,  The  Stage,  188,  215,  315,  411.  Archer,  About 
the  Theatre,  110,  244,  253.      Doran  (ed.  R.  H.  Stod- 


Suggestions  to  Teachers.  61 

dard),  Annals  of  the  Stage,  2:  390.    On  Stage  History, 
see  other  authorities  cited  under  Othello,  etc. 

C.     Literary  Criticism. 

Ethical,  Psychological,  ^Esthetic. — Hudson  (Harvard 
ed.),  137-141.  Ulrici,  Dramatic  Art,  2:  274.  Moulton, 
S.  as  a  Dramatic  Artist,  90-105.  Gervinus,  S.  Com- 
mentaries, 263-278.  Snider,  Shakespearian  Drama, 
Histories,  456-484.  Dowden,  S.  Mind  and  Art,  180- 
193.  Guizot,  Shakespeare  and  His  Times,  334-339. 
Coleridge,  Works,  4:  133  (S.  and  other  Dramatists). 
Whitman,  Critic,  2:145  ("What  Lurks  behind  His- 
toric Plays").  Hudson,  2:143-169  (see  above). 
Henry  Irving  ed.,  3: 11-14.  Lloyd,  Essays,  292- 
299.  Hazlitt,  Characters  of  Shakespeare's  Plays,  160- 
167.  Schlegel,  Dramatic  Literature,  435-438.  Jame- 
son, Mrs.,  Characteristics  of  Women,  396-407. 

Hebbel,  Werke,  11:165.  Herrig's  Archiv,  65,  383. 
Kreyssig,  Vorlesungen  iiber  S.,  1 :  326-349. 

III. 

THE    TRAGEDY    OF    HAMLET, 
Prince  of  Denmark. 

A .     Historical    Criticism. 

Date,  Text,  Sources. — Furness,  The  Variorum  Shake- 
speare, 1 :  notes;  2:  142.  Hazlitt,  Shakespeare  Library, 
2:  5,  87.  Hudson  (Harvard  ed.),  13,  14: 139.  Ward, 
English  Dramatic  Lit.,  1 :  409.  White  (R.  G.),  Shake- 
speare's Works,  11:5;  additions.  Elze,  Notes  on 
Elizabethan  Dramatists,  224-255;  and  his  William 
Shakespeare  (Trans.  Schmitz),  352.  Snider,  Shake- 
spearian Drama  (Trag.),  343.  Clarke,  Aldis  Wright, 
and  other  editions. 
4* 


62  English  in  Secondary  Schools. 

B.  Technical  Criticism. 

Plot,  Histrionic  Qualities,  Stage  History. — Halliwell- 
Phillips,  Memoranda  on  Hamlet.  Phelps  (H.  P.), 
Stage  History  of  Hamlet.  Freytag,  Die  Technik,  101- 
120.  Snider,  Tragedies.  Dutton  Cook,  Nights  at  the 
Play,  260-263,  373,  454;  Book  of  the  Play,  1  (Ghosts 
on  the  Stage).  Lamb,  Works,  4:  78,  Tragedies  of 
Shakespeare.  Russell,  Representative  Actors,  14,  16, 
310,  326.  Murdock,  The  Stage,  36,  67, 115, 123,  305-7, 
313,  etc.  G.  H.  Lewes,  Actors  and  the  Art  of  Acting. 
Baker,  English  Actors.  Collier,  English  Dram.  Poetry, 
1:272;  3:273.  Doran,  Annals  of  the  Stage.  Hutton, 
Plays  and  Players.     Henry  Irving  ed.,  8. 

C.  Literary  Criticism. 

Ethical,  Psychological,  ^Esthetic.  —  Bucknill,  Mad 
Folk  of  Shakespeare.  Coleridge,  Lectures  on  Shake- 
speare, 1:  145.  Coleridge  (H.),  Essays,  1:  151.  Con- 
oily  (Dr.  J.),  A  Study  of  Hamlet.  Corson,  Introduc- 
tion to  Shakespeare,  194.  Dowden,  Shakespeare,  His 
Mind  and  Art,  111-143.  Fleay,  Neglected  Facts  on 
Hamlet  (Eng.  Stud.),  7: 87.  Furness,  Variorum 
Shakespeare,  2: 143.  Gervinus,  Shakespeare's  Com- 
mentaries, 548.  Guizot,  Shakespeare  and  His  Times, 
174.  Halliwell-Phillips,  Mem.  on  the  Tragedy  of 
Hamlet,  10.  Hazlitt,  Elizabethan  Literature,  73. 
Hudson,  Life,  Art,  and  Characters  of  Shakespeare, 
1:  243.  Ingleby,  The  Man  and  the  Book,  Pt.  1: 120. 
Lowell,  Among  My  Books  (Shakespeare  Once  More), 
209.  Maudsley,  Body  and  Mind,  145-195.  Snider, 
The  Shakespearian  Drama  (Tragedies),  286.  Schlegel, 
Dramatic  Literature  (Lecture  XXV),  404.  Strachey 
(Sir  E.),  Shakespeare's  Hamlet.  Ulrici,  Dramatic  Art, 
1:279.     Weiss,  Wit,  Humor,  and   Shakespeare,  153- 


Suggestions  to  Teachers,  63 

339.  Lady  Martin,  Some  of  Shakespeare's  Female 
Characters.  Zim,  A  Throw  for  a  Throne.  William 
Preston  Johnston,  The  Prototype  of  Hamlet  (The  Bel- 
ford  Co.,  N.  Y.). 

Friesen  (H.  von),  Briefe  liber  Shakespeare's  Hamlet. 
Goethe,  Wilhelm  Meister,  bk.  4,  ch.  3;  bk.  5,  ch.  4. 
Kreyssig,  Vorlesungen  uber  Shakespeare,  2:  42.  Wer- 
ner (H.  A.),  Jahrb.  der  deutschen  Shakespeare-Gesell- 
schaft,  vol.  5.  See  same  Jahrb.,  2:  16-36.  Werder, 
Vorlesungen  uber  Hamlet,  Preuss  Jahrb.,  32:  531,  664; 
33,  3-8. 

In  Herrig's  Archiv,  the  following:  60:267  (Deetz). 
31:  93  (Eckardt).  37:  255,  Die  Ideale  und  das  Leben 
(Humbert).  4:  328,  Monolog  (ffiiser).  27:  269,  Ham- 
let, eine  Schicksalstragodie  (Jung).  59:  237,  Tragodie 
der  Pessimismus  (Rundschau).  6: 1;  8:  65  (Sievers). 
3:  1  (Zeil). 

Periodical  Literature. — Atlantic  Monthly,  49:  388. 
Blackwood,  37:  236;  2:  504;  24:  585;  46:  449.  Boston 
Review,  6:519.  Fraser,  14:1;  32:350.  Jour.  Spec. 
Phil.,  7:  71.  North  Amer.  Review,  106:  629.  Nation, 
10:170.  Nineteenth  Century,  1:513.  Macmillan's 
Magazine,  34:351.  Pop.  Science  Monthly,  17:60. 
Saturday  Review,  59:  246.  Westminster,  83:  65.  Lip- 
pincott,  April,  1890. 

IV. 

THE  TRAGEDY  OF  OTHELLO, 
The  Moor  of  Venice. 

A.    Historical  Criticism. 

Date,  Text,  Sources. — F.  G.  Fleay,  Shakesp.  Manual, 
47.  Guizot,  Shakespeare  and  His  Times,  217-227. 
Hazlitt,   Shakespeare    Library,    2:282-308.      Hudson 


64  English  in  Secondary  Schools. 

(Harvard  ed.),  Othello,  157-160.  Furness,  Variorum 
Othello,  339-389.  Simrock,  Quellen  des  Shakespeare, 
3: 181.  Klein,  Geschichte  des  Dramas,  2:  384.  Halli- 
well-Phillips,  Outlines  of  the  Life  of  Shakespeare,  1 : 
213;  2:302-3.  A.  W.  Ward,  English  Dram.  Lit.,  1: 
418-19.  Editions  of  White,  Clarke,  Aldis  Wright, 
Knight,  Malone,  Rolfe.  Irving  ed.,  6:3-8.  The 
original  and  translation  of  Cinthio's  Hecatommithi, 
Deca  Terza,  Nov.  7.     See  Hazlitt  and  Furness. 

B.     Technical  Criticism. 

Plot,  Histrionic  Qualities,  Stage  History. — Furness, 
Variorum,  358-372  (Duration  of  the  Action).  John 
Wilson,  Black.  Maga.,  Nov.,  1849;  April  and  May, 
1850  (Reprint  in  Trans.  New  S.  Society,  1875-76, 
1877-79).  Freytag,  Die  Technik,  105,  112.  Snider, 
Tragedies,  79-125.  Lamb,  Tragedies  of  S.,  96-7.  Leigh 
Hunt,  Critical  Essays  on  the  Performers  of  the  Lon- 
don Theatres,  40,  183.  Lewes  (G.  H.),  Actors  and 
Acting,  266-276  (First  Impressions  of  Salvini).  Fitz- 
gerald (Percy),  New  History  of  the  English  Stage 
(2  v.),  1:61.  Russell,  Repres.  Actors,  14.  Dutton 
Cook,  Nights  at  the  Play,  306-307,  442,  445-456,  461. 
Mowbray  Morris,  Essays  in  Theatrical  Criticism,  91- 
118.  Archer,  About  the  Theatre,  239,  244,  253,  330. 
Also  under  Betterton,  Garrich,  Kemble,  Edmund  Kean, 
etc.,  in  Doran,  Baker,  Gait — Lives  of  the  Players. 
Henry  Irving  ed.,  6:  8-13. 

C.    Literary  Criticism. 

Ethical,  Psychological,  ^Esthetic. — Coleridge,  Works 
(Shakespeare  and  Other  Dramatists),  4:177-185. 
Dowden,  Shakespeare,  His  Mind  and  Art,  230-244. 
Gervinus,  Shakespeare's  Commentaries,  505-547.  Hud- 


Suggestions  to  Teachers.  65 

son,  Shakespeare's  Life,  Art,  and  Character,  2:  423-460. 
Mrs.  Jameson,  Characteristics  of  Women,  240-253. 
Lloyd,  Essays,  453-466.  Rymer,  Tragedies  of  the  Last 
Age,  86-146.  Schlegel,  Dramatic  Literature,  401-404. 
Snider,  Shakespearian  Drama  (Tragedies),  79-124.  Ul- 
rici,  Shakespeare's  Dramatic  Art,  1 :  398-432.  Hazlitt, 
Characters  of  S.  Plays,  30-44. 

Herrig's  Archiv.,  55;  297;  5:234,  9:77,  137,  256. 
Kreyssig,  Vorlesungen  iiber  S.,  2:  78-101.  Living  Age, 
149:  206.     Temple  Bar,  48:  506.     Century,  23: 117. 

V. 

KING  LEAR. 

A.  Historical  Criticism. 

Date,  Text,  Sources. — Holinshed's  Chronicle.  Fur- 
ness,  Variorum,  5:353-408.  White,  Shakespeare's 
Works,  11:  201-205.  Rolfe,  King  Lear,  11-14.  Hud- 
son, Shakespeare's  Life,  Art,  and  Character,  2:320. 
Hazlitt,  Shakespeare's  Library,  2:  313-353,  and  6:  307- 
387.  Gervinus,  Shakespeare's  Commentaries,  611-13. 
Ward,  English  Dramatic  Art,  1:416.  Guizot,  Shake- 
speare and  His  Times,  185-8.  Doran,  Annals  of  the 
Stage  (Tate's  Improvement),  1:151.  Elze,  William 
Shakespeare,  353.     Henry  Irving  ed.,  6:  321-4. 

B.  Technical  Criticism. 

Plot,  Histrionic  Qualities,  Stage  History. — Moulton, 
Shakespeare  as  a  Dramatic  Artist,  203-25.  Snider, 
Shakespearian  Drama  (Tragedies),  126-209.  Ran- 
some,  Short  Studies  of  Shakespeare's  Plots,  118-61. 
Dutton  Cook,  Nights  at  the  Play  (Booth),  449.  Baker, 
English  Actors,  1:159  (Garrick);  2:159  (Edmund 
Kean).     Murdock,  The  Stage  (Kean),  131,  (Forest) 


66  English  in  Secondary  Schools. 

296,  (Adams)  357.  Dutton  Cook,  A  Book  of  the  Play 
(Storm  in  Lear),  2:86.  Doran,  Annals  of  the  Stage 
(Garrick  and  Barry),  1:409.  Freytae,  Die  Technik, 
111.     Henry  Irving  ed.,  6:  325-32.  ' 

C.     Literary  Criticism. 

Ethical,  Psychological,  Msthetic. — Dowden,  Shake- 
speare, His  Mind  and  Art,  257-75.  Furness,  Variorum, 
5: 412-78.  Gervinus,  Shakespeare's  Commentaries, 
613-44.  Hazlitt,  Characters  of  Shakespeare's  Plays 
(Elizabethan  Literature),  108-26.  Hudson,  Shake- 
speare's Life,  Art,  and  Characters,  2 :  324-58.  Lamb, 
Works,  4:  94.  Lloyd,  Shakespearian  Essays,  437-52. 
Moulton,  Shakespeare  as  a  Dramatist  and  Artist  (as 
above).  Snider,  Shakespearian  Drama  (Tragedies), 
(as  above).  Schlegel,  Dram.  Literature,  411.  Cole- 
ridge, Shakespeare  and  Other  Dramatists,  133-43. 
Conington,  Miscellaneous  Writings,  1:74-104.  Mrs. 
Jameson,  Characteristics  of  Women,  280.  Kreyssig, 
Vorlesungen  liber  Shakespeare,  2: 102-30.  Rumelin, 
Shakespeare  Studien,  71-77.  Ulrici,  Shakespeare's 
Dramatic  Art,  1:433-59.  White,  Atlantic,  Lear,  46: 
111.  Salvini,  Century,  Impressions  of  Shakespeare's 
Lear,  27:  363.  Hales,  Fortnightly  Review,  Lear,  23:  83. 
Wise,  Shakespeare  and  His  Birthplace,  124, 127.  Elze, 
William  Shakespeare,  402,  471.     Rolfe,  King  Lear,  14. 

VI. 

CORIOLANUS. 

A.     Historical  Criticism. 

Date,  Text,  Sources. — Hudson,  Life,  Art,  and  Char- 
acter, 2:460-80.  Hazlitt,  Shakespeare  Library,  257- 
311.  Tegg,  Shakespeare  and  His  Contemporaries,  56. 
Llovd.    Shakesneare    Essavs.    333-4.     Gervinus.    746. 


Suggestions  to  Teachers.  67 

Dowden,  Shakespeare's  Mind  and  Art,  276-280.   Ward, 

English  Dramatic  Literature,  1:433-35.     Sir  Thomas 

North,   Lives   of  the   Noble    Grecians    and   Romans, 

compared  together  by  that  learned  philosopher  and 

historiographer,  Plutarch  of  Chaeronea  (Coriolanus). 

Ulrici,  Shakesp.  Dramatic  Art,  1:  226;  2:  410.     Snider 

(Histories),  98-106.     Editions   of  White,   Clarendon 

Press,  Hudson,  Knight,    etc.     Henry  Irving    ed.,  6: 

219-20. 

B.    Technical  Criticism. 

Plot,  Histrionic  Qualities,  Stage  History. — Freytag, 
117.  Ransome,  Short  Studies  of  Shakespeare's  Plots, 
239-268.  Snider  (Histories),  107.  Archer,  About 
the  Theatre,  274.  Fleay,  Manual,  52.  On  Stage 
History,  see  Henry  Irving  ed.,  6:220-226,  and  under 
Coriolanus,  Tate,  John  Dennis,  James  Thomson,  J.  P. 
Kemble,  Mrs.  Siddons,  Kean,  Macready,  Vandenhoff, 
in  Baker's  English  Actors,  Murdock's  Stage,  Collier's 
Dramatic  Poetry,  Dutton  Cook's  Book  of  the  Play, 
Doran's  Annals  of  the  Stage,  Gait's  Lives  of  the 
Players.  Introductions  to  the  Rolfe,  Hudson,  Claren- 
don Press,  White,  Knight,  and  other  editions. 

C.     Literary  Criticism. 

■4 

Ethical,  Psychological,  ^Esthetic. — Hudson,  Life,  Art, 
etc.,  2:408-88.  Coleridge,  Lectures  on  Shakespeare, 
4:100-101.  Snider  (Histories),  107-143.  Gervinus, 
746-68.  Lloyd,  Shakespeare's  Essays,  334-48.  Schle- 
gel,  Dramatic  Literature,  414.  Ulrici,  Shakespeare's 
Dramatic  Art,  2:  188-94.  Hazlitt,  Characters  of 
Shakespeare's  Plays,  49-58.  Stapfer,  Shakespeare  and 
Classical  Antiquity,  c.  23-24.  Dowden,  Mind  and 
Art,  317-36.  Mrs.  Jameson,  Char.  S.  Women,  345-57. 
Irving  ed.,  6:  226-29.     Kreyssig,Vorlesungen,  1 :464-95. 


68  English  in  Secondary  Schools. 

General  Note. 

For  a  fairly  complete  bibliography  of  Shakespearian  literature, 
see  the  Appendix  to  Max  Koch's  valuable  manual  "Shakespeare  " 
of  the  Cotta-'sche  Bibliothek  der  Welt-Litteratur,  published  in 
Stuttgart,  and  to  be  had  of  the  J.  G.  Cotta-'sche  Buchhandlung 
(price,  about  50  cents). 

For  Historical  Criticism,  Koch  furnishes,  pp.  307-10,  classified  lists 
of  the  old  quartos,  and  of  the  general  editions  (besides  those  cited 
above),  N.  Rowe's  (1709;  1864),  Theobald's  (1772),  Sir  T.  Hanmer's 
(1744),  Dr.  Johnson's  (1765),  Capell's  (1767-8),  Johnson  &  Steevens' 
(1773),  revised,  J.  Reed  (1813),  Edm.  Malone's  (1790),  K.  F.  C.  Wag- 
ner's (1799),  J.  Boswell's  (1821),  J.  P.  Collier's  (1842-4),  The  Works, 
and  (1853)  the  Plays,  Dyce's  (1874-6),  the  Leopold  ed.  (1877).  Lists 
of  Translations  of  S.  and  of  the  doubtful  plays  are  given,  pp.  312-14. 
Biographical  material,  pp.  316-20.  The  Sources  of  the  Plays,  p.  321 ; 
note  especially  Simrock's  Die  Quellen  der  S.,  Bonn:  1872;  J.  P. 
Collier's  Shakespeare's  Library,  2  v.,  Lond.:  1843 ;  G.  Steevens'  Six 
old  plays  on  which  S.  founded  his  own  plays,  Lond.:  1779. 

For  Technical  Criticism,  see  Koch,  pp.  321-24.  Notice  Delius'  Die 
Buhnenweisungen  in  den  alten  Shaksp. — Ausgaben  (1879),  and 
the  other  Shakespearian  studies  by  Delius ;  H.  Ulrici  Ueber 
Shakespeare's  Fehler  und  Mangel  (1868);  Meissner's  Ueber  die 
innere  Einheit  in  Shakespeare's  Stiicken. 

For  Literary  Criticism  in  general,  see,  in  addition  to  references 
given  above,  Lessing's  Letters  concerning  Recent  Literature,  and 
his  Dramatic  Notes;  Goethe's  Rede  Zum  "  Shakespears-Tag  " 
(Bd.  2  des  "  Jungen  Goethe,"  Leipz.:  1875),  his  remarks  in  Wilhelm 
Meister,  and  the  three  articles  collected  under  the  title,  Shakesp. 
and  Kein  Ende  ;  A.W.  von  Schlegel's  Etwas  von  W.  Shakespeare 
bei  Gelegenheit  Wilhelm  Meisters  (1796);  L.  Tieck's  Letters  on 
Shakespeare,  etc.,  in  Kritische  Schriften  (Leipz.:  1848) ;  Hugo's 
William  Shakespeare  (Paris :  1864);  Papers  of  the  Shakesp.  Society, 
38  v.  (Lond.:  1841-52);  Publications  of  the  New  Shakespeare  So- 
ciety (Furnival  ed.,  1874-).  Heller's  Shakespeare  und  die  Philo- 
sophie  ( Aufsatzen  uber  S.);  Hertzberg's  Metrisches,Grammatisches, 
Chronologisches  zu  Shakespeare's  Dramen  (1878);  Hilgers'  Der 
dram.  Vers  Shakespeare's  (Aachen  1868-9) ;  Delius'  Die  Prosa  in 
Shakespeare's  Dramen  (1870).  Many  of  these  German  articles  will 
be  found  in  the  Jahrbuch  d.  deutschen  Shakespeare — Gesellschaft 
(Berlin  u.  Weimar,  1865-84). 

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